ALEPPO // The bombing of rebel-held districts of Aleppo intensified on Friday as the ceasefire that never really was gave way to what looks very much like the beginning of the end game.
Fighter planes pounded the city with dozens of air strikes as the Syrian military admitted for the first time that the aerial attack was likely to be followed by a ground offensive. And among the prime targets were the Syria Defence Service — better known as the White Helmets — the volunteer force who fight fires, carry out search-and-rescue and bomb damage clearance in places where there is no one else.
Three of the White Helmets’ four facilities in eastern Aleppo were hit in a wave of raids beginning at dawn. White Helmet member Ibrahim Alhaj said one centre in the southern part of the rebel-held Ansari district was put out of service when it was hit at about 7am, damaging ambulances and the one remaining fire engine serving the rebel-held part of Aleppo. A bomb fell in the courtyard of another centre.
“It is really critical. The air forces have directly targeted civil defence centres,” said Mr Alhaj said. “I have never seen in my life such bombardment. It is very, very intense.”
More than 30 people — including one of the volunteers and three children — were killed with more suspected to be still buried in the rubble.
“What’s happening now is annihilation,” said Amma Al Semo, head of the Aleppo White Helmets.
With the increase in strikes on top of the desperate shortage of fuel, it has become both more difficult and more dangerous for the civil defence teams to move. Residents and activists say the bombing, which began in earnest late Wednesday night, has been unprecedented, targeting residential areas, infrastructure and one of the two water stations which feeds both sides of Aleppo, as well as the civil defence centres, with piles of rubble blocking off some streets. In the Al-Kalasseh district, three buildings were levelled by a single strike, and rescue workers tried frantically to reach survivors using a single bulldozer and their bare hands. Also in Aleppo province, the British-based monitoring body, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 12 deaths in a Russian raid on the rebel-held town of Beshkatine and 11 killed in raids by unidentified aircraft on the ISIL stronghold Al-Bal.
The likelihood of a ground offensive was announced on Syrian state media, quoting an unnamed military official. Another high-ranking military source subsequently confirmed, “We have begun reconnaissance, aerial and artillery bombardment. This could go on for hours or days before the ground operation starts. The timing of the ground operation will depend on the results of the strikes and the situation on the ground.”
Another military source in Damascus said reinforcements were already in place in Aleppo. “The goal of the operation will be to expand the area under the army’s control”.
The news came as diplomatic efforts at the United Nations in New York failed to salvage a ceasefire that, however shaky, had lasted nearly a week.
Asked whether the truce brokered by Russia and the US could be reinstated, the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov replied, “You should ask the Americans.” A member of the Syrian opposition meeting in New York said there was “no indication that the Russians have any interest in a ceasefire.”
In a series of tweets, Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs said, “The tragedy is we see no end in sight. Awaiting international action and genuine political progress, we must work on the humanitarian dimension. Suffering in Aleppo [is] emblematic of great Syrian tragedy. Calamity that could have been averted by reason and compassion. Repercussions of the war in Syria will continue for years to come.”
The French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault accused president Assad and his allies of seeking to break Syria apart, but also criticised Washington for excluding America’s allies from the diplomatic search for a solution to the conflict.
“In bombarding Aleppo, the regime is playing the card of a partition of Syria, and his allies are letting him get away with it,” said Mr Ayrault at the UN.
US secretary of state John Kerry admitted the “credibility” of the peace negotiations had to be restored. “The only way to achieve that is if the ones that have the air power in that part of the conflict simply stop using it, ” he said. “ We cannot continue on the same path any longer.”
The ceasefire was dependent on the Russians being able to restrain the forces of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad and the Americans persuading the rebel forces they support to also hold their fire. In addition, the US had to press the rebel forces to separate from the extremist elements who have been fighting alongside them. Neither Russia nor the US has succeeded in the task and each blames the other.
In Damascus, an analyst close to the regime said it was no coincidence that the Aleppo assault began as the New York talks broke down. “In Aleppo, negotiations are being conducted by fire,” he said. “The Americans must understand that so long as they don’t implement their commitments, particularly for the rebels to distance themselves from ... (jihadists), the Russians and the Syrian army will advance.
The result is 40 lorries loaded with desperately-needed aid for tens of thousands of starving, injured and ill civilians, have been stuck at the Syria-Turkey border, hamstrung by bureaucracy and lack of security. The dangers for any humantiarin mission were brought into sharp focus by the air raid that hit an aid convoy in northern Syria last week, killing 20 civilians and destroying 18 lorries.
The UN is now considering a different route to circumvent the blocked main supply route as new air raids pound Syria’s second city.
“We are trying to see by all means available how we can reach east Aleppo,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. One possibility was a much longer route through Damascus, but that would depend on the security situation, he said. “That is still being planned for. When that will happen, frankly that is out of our hands.”
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