At least 26 killed in Aleppo as UN meets over Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — At least 26 civilians were killed in fresh government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiraling violence in Syria.
Staffan de Mistura said Syria's declaration of a military offensive to retake rebel-held eastern Aleppo has led to one of the worst weeks of the 5 1/2-year war with dozens of airstrikes against residential areas and buildings causing scores of civilian deaths.
Medical workers and local officials reported airstrikes on neighborhoods throughout Aleppo's rebel-held eastern districts as an announced government offensive entered its fourth day.
Hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and medical workers are expecting many of the wounded to die from a lack of treatment, according to Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council, which oversees medical affairs in the city's opposition quarters.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of contacts inside Syria, said earlier in the day that 213 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and shelling on opposition areas in and around Aleppo since a U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire collapsed Monday evening.
De Mistura, at the Security Council meeting, warned that if the Syrian government is intent on taking Aleppo, it is going to be "a grinding" a street-by-street fight where all the infrastructure in the city will be destroyed, but it won't lead to victory.
On the sidelines of the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to force a halt to the hostilities in Aleppo, and he condemned Russia and the Syrian government's alleged use of bunker busting bombs, which are designed to penetrate underground facilities.
The statement released jointly by 33 factions called on the government and Russian forces to halt airstrikes and lift sieges on opposition areas.