Assad regime’s and Russian airstrikes in Aleppo have killed dozens of people in the past few days, according to a activists and a monitor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that Syrian government helicopters targeted the al-Mashhad neighbourhood in the rebel-held half of the city, killing at least 18 people.
The Observatory added that the number of casualties was likely to rise due to the high number of people critically wounded.
Zouhir Al Shimale, an Aleppo-based journalist, said air strikes, including on a residential building, have killed at least 32 people over the past two days.
“Residents say the building was full of families [internally displaced] from other areas,” he told Al Jazeera by telephone.
More than 42 civilians were reportedly killed and dozens more wounded in air strikes launched by the Syrian government in al-Atareb, a city in the northern Aleppo province.
Assad regime’s airstrikes have put four makeshift hospitals and a local blood bank in Aleppo out of action on Sunday, in addition to airstrikes on several neighborhoods in Aleppo, according to local rescue workers and a monitor.
“Five medical facilities were hit [overnight] and are out of service right now,” Ammar Salmo, spokesman for a volunteer rescue group known as the White Helmets told Al Jazeera.
Aleppo offensive
After a wide offensive on the city, Assad regime and its allies were able to cut the only supply route into the rebel-held parts of Aleppo.
“There are around 400,000 civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo on the brink of starvation. Just last Sunday, two days ago, the Russian and the Syrian regime air forces bombarded the six remaining hospitals and medical facilities in [the city],” Farah al-Atassi, of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the general command of the Syrian army called on opposition fighters in eastern Aleppo to lay down their weapons, the government-run SANA news agency reported.
In text messages to civilians and fighters, the army urged residents to “join the national reconciliations and expel the mercenary outsiders from the areas where the citizens reside”, SANA added.
Opposition groups associated to the Free Syrian Army, however, insisted that the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and armed groups like it have only a minor presence within the city.
