Syrian forces take Aleppo quarter

Airstrike victims fill hospitals, food running out, residents say

In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood of Mashhad in Syria on Tuesday.
In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood of Mashhad in Syria on Tuesday.

BEIRUT -- Syrian government forces captured a central rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo on Tuesday after a week of blistering airstrikes.

Desperate residents describe horrific scenes in Syria's largest city and onetime commercial center, with hospitals and underground shelters hit by indiscriminate airstrikes that the United Nations said may amount to a war crime.

Syrian state TV said troops captured Farafra, near Aleppo's famous citadel, and that fighting was underway near the historic core of the northern city.

Aleppo has been fiercely contested since rebels captured several eastern neighborhoods in 2012.

Those neighborhoods are now under siege and over the past week have endured the worst aerial onslaught since the start of the war, with more than 200 people killed and several buildings flattened.

Last week, the Syrian army ordered civilians to stay away from rebel positions, saying a ground offensive would begin.

On Tuesday, government forces captured the rebel-held central neighborhood of Farafra near the Old City.

But the battle for the city still appears to be mired in stalemate.

Government forces captured the Handarat area on the northern edge of Aleppo over the weekend, only to lose it hours later.

The contested historic quarter of Aleppo, one of the world's oldest cities, is home to the Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The 11th-century minaret of the famed mosque collapsed in April 2013 during fighting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, confirmed that government forces are advancing on the old quarter.

A Syrian military official in the capital, Damascus, said operations in Aleppo will continue until the "terrorists" in the eastern parts of the city are "wiped out." The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

In Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Syria's ambassador that Moscow has "a firm intention to continue providing assistance to the Syrian government in fighting terrorism and to help achieve the soonest possible political settlement of the Syrian crisis."

Residents in Aleppo said they have been stunned by the intensity of the bombing, and they have seen a sharp increase in food prices due to the siege, which tightened earlier this month.

Ibrahim Alhaj, a member of the Syrian Civil Defense, said his parents' house was shelled, and he was able to save them only because he lives nearby.

Assad "listens to no one -- not the United Nations, not anyone," a desperate and exhausted Alhaj said. "Is there no humanity in this world?"

Clinics have been flooded with casualties in the past week. Many had to be treated on white-tiled floors covered with blood.

Mohamed Abu Jaafar Kahil, the head of a medical charity, said in a message that conditions in Aleppo were desperate.

"Hospitals have no more room to receive even one more case, due to the huge number of casualties, of wounded and of martyrs who died today at the hands of barbaric Russian warplanes backed by Syrian warplanes," he said.

Kahil recounted "nonstop bombing" by rockets and other artillery, including cluster munitions that are infamous for the indiscriminate way in which they maim and kill. He estimated that dozens had died and hundreds had been wounded.

Dr. Mohamed al-Ahmad, a radiologist reached via the messaging app Viber, described a dire situation at the hospital where he worked. "We're running short of drugs, we're running short of respirators, we don't have baby milk, especially for newborns," he said.

Several thousand rebels from different factions are believed holed up in eastern Aleppo, with the largest being the Nour el-Din el-Zinki group.

"The regime and its allies know very well the high price they will pay if they try to storm liberated Aleppo," said Yasser Alyousef, a spokesman for the group, referring to the rebel-held sector. "The rebels have become experts in street warfare and ways to drain the enemy."

Residents, fearing further targeting, deny the presence of any al-Qaida-affiliated fighters inside the besieged area.

Brita Hassan Haj, head of the Aleppo council in the area, said the government's aim was to drive residents out. On Monday, 25 of eastern Aleppo's 63 neighborhoods were bombed, he said.

"Bunker-buster bombs are penetrating underground shelters, leaving no one safe," he said. "The main roads are closed, the civil defense can't operate, and people are dying. ... It is like judgment day."

Bassem Ayoub, an Aleppo resident, reported that food and medical supplies were running out. "Every day is worse then the last," he said. "Every day I leave my house, I keep in mind that I might not be back. All the people are doing the same here. We're living day by day.

The Observatory said 11 people were killed in airstrikes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Tuesday, and that insurgents shelled the nearby government-held villages of Nubal and Zahraa, killing a baby girl.

The latest escalation in Syria's 5½-year-old civil war came after a weeklong cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Russia unraveled, with each side accusing the other of violating the agreement.

The fighting has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half of Syria's population.

Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue, Sarah El Deeb, Albert Aji and Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press and by Hwaida Saad of The New York Times.

A Section on 09/28/2016

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