Airstrikes pound Aleppo after weeks-long pause

Intense airstrikes today resumed in opposition-held districts of eastern Aleppo after a weeks-long pause, killing at least three people, residents and a war monitor said.

Syrian state television said the Damascus government’s air force took part in strikes against “terrorist strongholds” in Aleppo’s Old City while Russia said it had struck Daesh and former Al-Nusra Front sites elsewhere in Syria, without mentioning Aleppo.

The bombardment appeared to mark the end of a pause in strikes on targets inside the city declared by Syria’s government and Russia on 18 October.

“Our houses are shaking from the pressure. Planes are soaring above us and the bombardment is around us,” said Modar Shekho, a resident of eastern Aleppo. Both rocket strikes by jets and barrel bombs dropped by helicopters were used, residents and a war monitor said.

The renewed violence in Aleppo will be closely followed in Washington where President-elect Donald Trump has signalled he intends to take a different approach to Syria from that of President Barack Obama, who has backed some opposition groups.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose approach in Syria has been praised by the US president-elect, spoke by phone yesterday and agreed to “combine efforts to tackle international terrorism and extremism”, the Kremlin said.

Yesterday and today, airstrikes hit hospitals in three towns and villages in opposition-held areas to the west of Aleppo, putting them all out of action. Damascus and Moscow both deny targeting hospitals.

Other strikes, including some by suspected Russian cruise missiles, hit Saraqeb in Idlib, a province near Aleppo where many of the opposition factions have a large presence.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said today that Moscow had launched attacks in Idlib and Homs provinces using missiles and jets from the country’s only aircraft carrier, which recently arrived in the eastern Mediterranean.

“We carried out exhaustive advance research on all targets,” said Shoigu. “We are talking about warehouses with ammunition, terrorist training centres … and factories,” he said, adding the strikes would continue.