Syria recaptures district in ‘appalling’ Aleppo attacks

A medic carries the body of a boy after he was pulled from the rubble following an air strike by government forces on the rebel-held al Shaer neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)

Syria’s Army took control of a rebel-held district in central Aleppo on Tuesday after days of heavy air strikes that have killed dozens and sparked allegations of war crimes.

In the first advance since announcing plans last week to retake all of the divided city, pro-government troops seized the Farafina district northwest of Aleppo’s historic citadel, a military source told AFP.

“After neutralising many terrorists... Units are now demining the area,” the source said.

The push follows several days of Syrian and Russian air strikes on rebel-held Aleppo neighbourhoods — some of the fiercest bombardment of the five-year conflict so far — after a ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow and Washington collapsed last week.

The Aleppo maelstrom prompted Western powers to accuse Russia of committing possible war crimes, charges the Kremlin condemned as “unacceptable”.

“The appalling attacks on Aleppo have shaken all of us, and the violence and the attacks we have seen... Is morally totally unacceptable and is a blatant violation of international law,” Stoltenberg told a news conference in Bratislava.

On the ground in eastern Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said air strikes struck several neighbourhoods simultaneously, including in Al Shaar, where a five-storey building was levelled with a family stuck inside.

One young girl, her body encased in rubble, was among the dead. Her father, in shock as rescue workers picked up her lifeless body, collapsed beside, saying: “She’s just sleeping. She’s just used to sleeping.”

The Syrian Observ-atory for Human Rights, a monitor, said that more than 155 people have been killed by Russian bombardment.