Image copyright ReutersCivilians in the rebel-held part of the Syrian city of Aleppo are enduring a "living hell", the UN humanitarian chief has said, as fighting rages on.
Stephen O"Brien urged the warring parties to allow the evacuation of hundreds of people who need urgent medical care.
Rebel-held front-line areas were subject to dozens of Russian air strikes overnight, observers said.
It allowed government troops to gain ground in the north of the city.
The government is trying to re-capture the city"s eastern half, which has long been a major opposition stronghold.
It has also emerged that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry talked again on Saturday about the situation in Aleppo.
But there is still no sign of any diplomatic breakthrough that might end the bloodshed.
- How Moscow’s Syria campaign has paid off
- Aleppo remains thorn in government"s side
- Why truce was doomed to fail
"Ferocious pummelling"
"I am deeply alarmed by the ferocious pummelling of eastern Aleppo city," Mr O"Brien, UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement.
"Indiscriminate bombing and shelling continues in a shocking and unrelenting manner, killing and maiming civilians, subjecting them to a level of savagery that no human should have to endure."
The healthcare system in eastern Aleppo had been "all but obliterated", he added.
On Saturday, air strikes hit Aleppo"s main trauma M10 hospital for the third time in a matter of days, medical workers say.
"The hospital is now out of service completely," radiologist Mohammad Abu Rajab was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition monitoring group, said dozens of Russian air strikes overnight had targeted front-line "fighting zones".
A correspondent with AFP news agency said the districts of Bustan al-Basha, Sakhur and Suleiman al-Halabi were all hit.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the strikes had helped pro-government troops to advance in the north of the city, reaching the outskirts of al-Halaq district.
"Regime forces aims to control Bustan al-Basha and Sakhur districts, to tighten the zones controlled by rebels," he said.
Russia and the US are at loggerheads over ending the conflict in Syria, both supporting opposing sides in the five-year civil war.
A US-Russia brokered cessation of hostilities recently collapsed and the US had threatened to end co-operation with the Kremlin unless Russia halts its military campaign.
For its part, Russia accuses the US of secretly supporting the powerful jihadist group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) in its attempts to unseat President Bashar al-Assad.
Once Syria"s commercial and industrial hub, Aleppo has been divided roughly in two since 2012.
At least 250,000 people have been killed in the conflict, with the observatory estimating the true number to be about 430,000.
More than 4.8 million people have fled abroad, and an estimated 6.5 million others have been displaced within the country, the UN says.
Syria conflict: Besieged areas of Aleppo a "living hell"
http://latiendadejm.com/blog/syria-conflict-besieged-areas-of-aleppo-a-living-hell/
| | La tienda de JM
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario