Activists in eastern Aleppo said that regime forces committed a horrible massacre in the district of Bab Alnairab where nearly 25 civilians were killed in airstrikes while trying to escape the district on foot. The activists said that most of the victims were women and children, adding that dozens more were injured.
Aleppo civil defense said air strikes and barrel bombs hit several eastern Aleppo districts overnight and into Tuesday. They added that the victims were trying to reach regime-held parts to the west.
Meanwhile, the United States’ State Department has held Russia responsible for the atrocities perpetrated by Assad regime across Syria, saying that Russia bears “the ultimate responsibility.”
Spokesperson of the US Department of State, John Kirby, on Monday said that “Russia has considerable influence over Assad; and when they [the Russians] have shown in the past that they’re willing to use that influence for a positive outcome, it makes a difference,” referencing the Russian role in handing over Assad regime’s chemical arsenal.
“Russia bears the ultimate responsibility here for what the Syria regime is doing – and being permitted to do – in terms of the devastating civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, to include hospitals in and around Aleppo,” Kirby added.
The Syrian Coalition’s media office on Monday said that it had obtained videos proving Russia’s jets bombed factories compound in western rural Aleppo in October and November.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on November 17 published a videotape showing what it claimed were airstrikes on positions of “terrorist groups” in western rural Aleppo. However, the structures appearing in the video are in fact a factories compound used solely for civilian purposes.
A local source told the Coalition’s media office that the Russian jets bombed the compound located near the town of Atareb on Kafar Nouran road in western rural Aleppo three times in October and November.
The source said that the compound consisted of three factories. One of them manufactured tents for the internally displaced people producing an average of 10 tents a day. The other two factories produced pharmaceutical and medical accessories and equipment.
The Russian and Assad regime air forces have dramatically stepped up aerial attacks on rebel-held areas across Syria since 15 November, targeting mainly medical facilities and vital civilian infrastructure. Over 500 civilians have been killed and 1,600 injured in the ongoing bombing campaign. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)
