PHOTO: A man walks amid damaged buildings after an airstrike in opposition-held area of Aleppo (Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters)
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UPDATE 1640 GMT: The Financial Times publishes more testimony from Aleppo of the Russian-regime airstrikes and the siege on the city:
“You wake up in the morning, and the first thing you realise is that it means you’re still alive, so you need to start moving,” says Hisham Skaff, a local councillor in rebel-held districts of the city. “If you hear the bombing over on the other side of town, you calculate you have about two hours to move and get things done before the shelling comes.”…
“After the bombings stop, people rush out, some of them running [to get supplies],” says Obeida Baaj, who spoke by telephone. “Bread, whatever you need for the house, whatever you can afford, whatever you can find.”
Mr Baaj, a local journalist, says the past few days have become a routine of horrific bombings and searching for food.
“I woke up to bombings [on Sunday] and the sounds of my wife crying those horrible, terrifying sobs that mean someone has died,” he says.
Hours later, Mr Baaj was attending the funeral of his cousin — a baby boy who suffocated under rubble caused by a bomb known as a “bunker buster”, which brought down an apartment building.
After the funeral, he rushed to a market in a neighbouring district, hoping to find vegetables — there were none — or meat he could afford.
Most people there are living on less than $1 a day, he says, and meat now costs about $30 a kilo.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Facing one of its most difficult political positions since its military intervention in September 2015, Russia tried on Monday to shift attention from continuing Russian-regime airstrikes that have killed almost 400 people in Syria’s largest city Aleppo.
Local rescue workers and journalists said about 60 pro-Assad strikes hit Aleppo early Monday. The attacks eased during the day, but the Local Coordination Committees said 31 people were killed in districts like Sukkari, Mashhad, Karm_Homd, and Bustan_Qasr.
The Russian-regime assault was renewed eight days ago, hours after the Syrian military declared an end to the short-lived US-Russian ceasefire, attacking a UN aid convoy west of Aleppo. Since then, attacks have been near-constant on the opposition areas in and near the city.
See Syria Feature: The Russian-Regime Strategy – “Offer Surrender. Kill Whoever Stays”
In Russia’s latest defense, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Monday that the allegation of Russian “barbarism” — leveled by the US, British, and French Ambassadors at the UN Security Council — was not appropriate: “We note the overall unacceptable tone and rhetoric of the representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States, which can damage and harm our relations.”
Peskov tried to shift attention to the rebels: “Terrorists are using the cease-fire regime to regroup, to replenish their arsenals and for obvious preparations to carry out attacks”.
The spokesman claimed that, while a recent ceasefire in Syria had “little effect”, Moscow was “not losing the hope and political will to use maximum efforts to reach the point of political settlement in Syria”.
“So far it’s been hard,” he added.
Rescue Services Depleted, Water Cut Off
Bebars Mishal, a civil defense worker in opposition-held Aleppo, said of the latest bombardment, “It’s the same situation. Especially at night, the bombardment intensifies, it becomes more violent, using all kinds of weapons, phosphorous and napalm and cluster bombs.”
Ammar al-Selmo, the head of the local White Helmets civil defense organization, said rescuers have only two fire trucks and three ambulances left, with three fire trucks, two ambulances, and three vans hit in the past week.
An estimated 1.75 million people in Aleppo are without water. A pumping station for opposition-held east Aleppo, with an estimated 250,000 population, was destroyed by bombing. The 1.5 million in regime areas have also lost supply — because of a rebel cut-off in response to the attacks on east Aleppo and/or because of damage from the airstrikes.
“We are trying to respond…but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” Selmo said.
Aref al-Aref, an intensive care medical worker, added:
Aleppo city’s hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded people….Things are starting to run out.
We are unable to bring anything in … not equipment and not even medical staff. Some medical staff are in the countryside, unable to come in because of the siege.
Brita Hagi Hassan, the President of the opposition Aleppo city council, spoke of an unprecedented assault:
The planes are not leaving the skies at all….Life in the city is paralyzed. Everyone is cooped up in their homes, sitting in the basements. These missiles are even targeting the basements and shelters that we’d set up to protect people.
Kerry: Not “Delusional” to Work With Russia
While criticizing the Russian-regime bombing, US Secretary of State John Kerry defended his pursuit alongside Moscow of a ceasefire and political process.
Republican Senator John McCain said last week that Kerry was “intrepid but delusional” for putting too much faith in Russia.
Kerry responded on Monday, during a trip to Colombia, that discussions had to be renewed:
The cause of what is happening is Assad and Russia wanting to pursue a military victory. Today there is no ceasefire and we’re not talking to them right now. And what’s happening? The place is being utterly destroyed. That’s not delusional. That’s a fact.
After the escalation of Russian-regime airstrikes last week, including the attack on the UN aid convoy, Kerry briefly raised the idea of grounding Russian and Syrian warplanes over areas of humanitarian need. However, both Damascus and Moscow immediately rebuffed the proposal.
A US official raised a different possibility, saying that Saudi Arabia might begin providing anti-aircraft weapons to rebels: “The Saudis have always thought that the way to get the Russians to back off is what worked in Afghanistan 30 years ago – negating their air power by giving [shoulder-mounted air defense] MANPADS to the mujahideen.”
He continued to hold Washington’s line that the weapons should not be supplied: “So far, we’ve been able to convince them that the risks of that are much higher today because we’re not dealing with a Soviet Union in retreat, but a Russian leader who’s bent on rebuilding Russian power and less likely to flinch.”
Rebels Capture More Villages in Northern Hama Offensive
Three days after renewing their advance in northern Hama Province, rebels have captured four more villages.
Pro-opposition activists reported the advance on Tuesday morning into three of the villages. Later in the day, the offensive attacked regime positions in Tulaysiah, forcing the defending troops to flee.
The Russian air force then launched airstrikes on the villages.
Rebel territory in green, regime in red:
(Map: @archicivilians)