ALEPPO (Bos News Life) — Sustained rocket attacks in the last couple of weeks in the Syrian city of Aleppo has left up to 200 Christians dead, an aid group said.
In a statement, workers at Barnabas Fund asked for prayers for the Christians and other civilians in the city of Aleppo. The update comes as Syria reached its sixth year of civil war, Bos News Life reports.
When 1,350 rockets hit the Christian area in Aleppo from April 22 to April 30, 132 individuals were killed, half of them were women and children. On May 3, another 65 died in the rocket attacks and hundreds were left injured, the aid group added.
Barnabas Fund said 35 of the victims who died last week were being treated at the Dabbit Hospital when a rocket destroyed the place. Two of the patients died on the operating table. The explosion also partially damaged another hospital in the area, causing it to close down. A Christian insider said only 16 out of the 134 hospitals in Aleppo are functioning after the recent attacks.
While many of the rocket attacks were carried out by Syrian or Russian forces against opposition groups, Barnabas Fund said Islamic Rebel groups had threatened to wipe out Armenian Christians in the area.
Last week, a Franciscan priest in Aleppo said the violence in the city is the worst he has seen since the Syrian war began. Fr. Ibrahim Alsabagh talked about the suffering he witnessed in the city and how eerie the place felt when the rocket attacks cease, the Catholic Herald relays.
