Activists in Aleppo province said that at least 67 civilians were killed and over 200 injured in relentless bombardment by the Assad regime forces on Aleppo and its countryside on Tuesday. The victims included 53 people who were killed in the besieged neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo. Rescue workers said that they managed to pull the bodies of 15 people from under the rubble of a building that was bombed on Sunday in the neighborhood of Jalloum.
It is a “disgrace” that the international community has been unable to alleviate the suffering in besieged eastern Aleppo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday one day after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day cease-fire in the city.
“Aleppo is a disgrace,” Merkel said in a speech to her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, slamming Russian and Iranian support for the bombardment by the Assad regime. “It is a disgrace that we have been unable to establish humanitarian corridors, but we must continue to fight for it,” Merkel added.
Thousands of Syrians in rebel-held areas on Tuesday took to the streets to condemn the war crimes being committed by the Assad regime, Russia and the Iranian-backed militias in Aleppo. The protestors held placards reading “Rage for Aleppo,” denouncing the international silence over these disposable crimes.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday warned that even if Aleppo falls to the Assad regime the conflict in Syria will not end.
“Even if it did fall, Aleppo will not change the fundamental underlying complexity of this war. If Assad takes over Aleppo, is the war going to end? No. Will he have solved the political challenge of bringing people together to unite the country? No,” Kerry told a press conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
Aleppo and its countryside have been subjected to a ferocious onslaught by the Assad regime and Russian forces since November 15. Over 900 people, mostly women and children, have so far been killed and thousands more injured in the ongoing bombing campaign on the city and its countryside. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office + Agencies)
