International News

ALEPPO, Syria, (APP/AFP) – Russian and
Syrian warplanes pounded rebel-held areas of divided second
city Aleppo on Saturday as government forces closed in on the
rebels’ sole remaining supply line, a monitoring group said.
An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held east of the
city said the air strikes lasted throughout the night into
the morning.
Aleppo, which was Syria’s commercial and manufacturing
hub before civil war broke out in 2011, has been a key
battleground ever since rebels seized eastern neighbourhoods
of the city the following year.
The Russian strikes focused on the Castello Road,
the only remaining route out of the rebel-held east of the
city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Russian planes are backing a Syrian regime ground
offensive on the northern edges of the city, while Syrian
planes bomb the eastern neighbourhoods,” Observatory head
Rami Abdel Rahman said.
A child was among two people killed in strikes on the
rebel-held Al-Maysar neighbourhood, the White Helmets civil
defence group said.
“In the past two days, my kids and I haven’t been able
to sleep all night because of the huge blasts, the likes of
which we haven’t heard before,” said 38-year-old shopkeeper
Abu Ahmed.
A father of three, Abu Ahmad owns a small convenience store
in east Aleppo.
“We haven’t been able to get any products or produce for
the shop over the past two days because no one can use the
(Castello) road,” he said.