ALEPPO, Syria (Guardian) — Almost 150 civilians have been killed in a week of intense violence in the besieged eastern half of Aleppo, activists said as violence continued to grip Syria’s former industrial capital.
The latest casualty figures cap two months of unprecedented violence in Syria’s largest city. More than 800 people have been killed since forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad announced a campaign to crush the opposition in the rebel-held eastern districts.
“This ferocious campaign is a war of extermination,” said a doctor in eastern Aleppo, who was wounded earlier this month in an airstrike. “Everything is a target, whether human or tree or rock. Everything is being exterminated with the collusion of the United Nations. They all see and hear, but they will not answer, and they cannot stop this war machine.”
He added: “We have nobody but God,.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization, said on Tuesday, November 22, that 141 civilians, including 18 children, had been killed in the last week of violence.
Moscow intervened last year in the conflict to shore up the Assad regime. Observers had predicted that the renewed assault on Aleppo would begin with the highly publicized arrival a week ago of an aircraft carrier belonging to Russia off the Syrian coast.
