Syria: Aleppo hit again as death toll from earlier hospital attack ‘rises to 50’

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Syria: Aleppo hit again as death toll from earlier hospital attack ‘rises to 50’

By Alasdair Sandford

There was more chaos and panic on the streets of Aleppo on Friday as fresh airstrikes hit the northern Syrian city after only a brief respite.

Several more deaths were reported on both sides.

Another medical facility was reportedly hit, said a civil defence chief working in rebel-held areas. Bebars Mishal told Reuters there were a number of air attacks in the morning, many around mosques in rebel territory.

Syrian state media said several people had been killed and wounded as a government-held quarters in Aleppo was shelled and set on fire. Three died and 25 were injured when rebel-fired mortars hit a mosque as people were leaving Friday prayers, the state news agency SANA reported.

The death toll at a hospital hit by airstrikes in Aleppo overnight on Wednesday-Thursday has risen to at least 50 people, including six medics, according to the French Charity Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders).

The attack on the al-Quds hospital, in a rebel-held part of the city, was widely condemned abroad.

Estimates now say more than 220 civilians have been killed in Aleppo, which is divided between rebel-held and government areas, over the past week.

The UN’s human rights agency has turned its fire onto the Security Council in the light of the recent upsurge in violence.

“The persistent failure of the Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court is an example of the most shameful form of realpolitik. In the minds of many people the great powers have therefore in effect, become accomplices to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives and the displacement of millions,” said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Meanwhile Syrian state TV announced the army would implement a temporary truce starting on Saturday – for 24 hours in Damascus, for three days in the coastal province of Latakia.

A Syrian military source said Aleppo was not included in the ceasefire, due to “terrorists who have not stopped hitting the city and its residents”.

Also on Friday, pictures which have been independently judged to be authentic by the social media news agency Storyful, appeared to show a more positive development.

Broadcast by a pro-government media channel, they purportedly depict Russian planes dropping aid packages over Deir Ezzor, where 200,000 people have been living under siege from the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Heavy clashes between the army and ISIL were also reported in several districts of the city.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-04-30

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