'People burned alive in their homes'

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he received reports of “cold-blooded assassinations of entire families […] executions, particularly of women and children; People burned alive in their homes; continued targeting of hospitals…”

“Such atrocities revolt consciences. More than ever, there is an urgent need to stop hostilities in Aleppo,” Ayrault said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“The supporters of the regime, beginning with Russia, cannot allow this logic of vengeance and systematic terror to be committed […] without taking the risk of being accomplices,” he continued. “I call on the United Nations to use all the mechanisms without delay to establish the truth about what is happening in Aleppo and the international community to ensure that these crimes do not go unpunished.”

An estimated 100,000 city residents remain under siege by the regime and its allies in some 8.6 square kilometers of eastern Aleppo.

Over the course of the last 27 days, some 990 civilians have been killed in eastern Aleppo in attacks by the Syrian regime and allied militias, local sources report.

The recent escalation comes amid attempts by the Russia-backed Assad regime to reestablish control over parts of Aleppo captured four years ago by armed opposition groups.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests — which had erupted as part of the “Arab Spring” uprisings — with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.