MSF calls for immediate halt to brutal Attacks on Aleppo

MSF calls for immediate halt to brutal Attacks on Aleppo

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called for an immediate end to the ’Syrian’ regime’s heavy bombardment in Aleppo, which has killed at least 500 people in the past two weeks.

Assad regime, backed by Russia, said on September 22 it was starting a new wide offensive to recapture the rebel-held parts of Aleppo after a week-long ceasefire was declared officially over on Monday. the offensive includes a ground assault, artillery bombardment, and intensive airstrikes.

Since 19 September, more than 500 civilians have been killed and more than 1700 injured in rebel-held areas of Aleppo province, including the besieged eastern part of the city, Civil defense workers said.

Two hospitals out of service in the besieged rebel sector of Aleppo on Wednesday by Assad-Russian airstrikes, while only 30 doctors are left for more than 250.000 civilians in the besieged parts of the city.

“MSF demands that the ’Syrian’ and allied governments stop the bombing that is causing a bloodbath among civilians,” the humanitarian organization said in a press release on Friday.

MSF’s director of operations Xisco Villalonga warned about a deepening humanitarian crisis in the city, where nearly 275,000 civilians find themselves under siege.

“Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box,” he said and pleaded for an end to the bombings.

“The ’Syrian government’ must stop the indiscriminate bombing, and Russia as an indispensable political and military ally of Syria has the responsibility to exert the pressure to stop this,” he said.

The regime’s heavy bombardment between Sept. 21 and 26 have killed at least 278 people, 96 of them children, according to MSF.

The recent airstrikes have also targeted the city’s few remaining hospitals, and on Wednesday two more MSF-supported hospitals went out of service.

“If this intensifies of bombing continues, there may not be a single hospital standing in a few days,” Villalonga warned.

The hospitals that were still functioning in Aleppo this week have received more than 822 wounded, at least 221 of them children.

Abu Waseem, a manager of an MSF-supported hospital, said all intensive care units were full after the recent airstrikes.

“Patients have to wait for others to die so they can be moved to an available bed in intensive care. We only have three operating theaters and yesterday alone we had to do more than 20 major abdominal surgeries,” he said in the MSF press release.

“The hospital staff is working up to 20 hours a day – they cannot just go home and let people die,” he added.

The ’Syrian’ regime ended on Sept. 19 a week-long cease-fire to begin a major offensive in Aleppo, despite heavy criticism by the international community.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the offensive on Wednesday and accused the regime and its allies of committing war crimes.

The Assad regime forces, backed by Russian air power, Iranian ground forces and Shi’ite militia fighters from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, has been tightening its grip on rebel-held districts of Aleppo this year, and this summer achieved a long-held goal of fully encircling the area.

Recovering full control of the rebels’ last significant urban area would be the most important victory of the war so far for Assad, strengthening his control over Syria’s most populous and strategically important regions.

The Syrian crisis began as a peaceful demonstration against the injustice in Syria. Assad regime used to fire power and violence against the civilians and led to armed resistance. 450.000 Syrians lost their lives in the past five years according to UN estimates, and more than 12 million have lost their homes.