Bombing campaign in Syria kills dozens, demolishes buildings
BEIRUT — Syria’s military threatened a ground offensive in Aleppo and pounded the city’s rebel-held neighbourhoods with airstrikes on Friday, killing dozens, demolishing buildings and damaging a main water station in an escalation that could doom faltering attempts to revive a cease-fire.
Rebels vowed to fight to keep President Bashar Assad’s forces out of their districts and shelled government neighbourhoods, wounding several people, according to state media.
Diplomatic efforts in New York have failed to salvage a Syria cease-fire that lasted nearly a week, before giving way to what residents and activists say is a new level of violence. The bombing, which began in earnest late Wednesday, has been unprecedented, targeting residential areas, infrastructure and civil defencecentres.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and one-time commercial centre, has been contested since July 2012, but in recent weeks its eastern rebel-held neighbourhoods have been under siege by government forces and their allies. During the cease-fire, aid convoys remained stuck on the Turkish border unable to reach rebel-held parts of the city where some 250,000 people live, even though aid delivery was part of the U.S.-Russia truce agreement.