2 million without running water in Aleppo

At least 26 civilians were killed in fresh government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiraling violence in Syria but failed to take any action because of deep divisions between Russian Federation and the Western powers.

The meeting was requested by the United States, Britain, and France, as pro-government forces extend their bombardment of the contested city of Aleppo. The Local Coordination Committees, another monitoring group, said 49 were killed on Saturday alone.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of contacts inside Syria, said earlier in the day that 213 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and shelling on opposition areas in and around Aleppo since a U.S. Activists reported dozens of airstrikes on Friday alone.

US officials believe Russian aircraft were responsible for the strike, but Moscow has denied involvement and the Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday a US Predator drone was in the area when the convoy was attacked. “Aleppo is being wiped out”.

Before the partial cease-fire declared last week, rebels would often shell civilian neighborhoods in western Aleppo, and the government of Bashar Assad regularly bombed rebel-held eastern Aleppo, cutting civilians off from much-needed aid. Wounded people have flooded into clinics, where many are being treated on the floor because of a lack of stretchers. “Aleppo will remain free of Assad, his sectarian militias and thugs”.

“We are deeply anxious by the high numbers of wounded reported by the hospitals we support, and also know that in many areas the wounded and sick have nowhere to go at all – they are simply left to die”.

Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council, which oversees medical affairs in the opposition areas, says he expects numerous most badly wounded will die from insufficient treatment and facilities.

“They are using weapons that appear to be specifically for [bringing down] buildings”, said a senior official in an Aleppo-based rebel faction, the Levant Front.

Power said the US knows “that Russian Federation has consistently said one thing, and done the opposite”.

A photograph circulating on social media showed the bodies of a woman and her two children who were killed in one of the airstrikes on Aleppo.

Riad Hijab, head of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, told journalists in NY that “what’s happening in Aleppo is a manifestation of the ineffectiveness of any cooperation with murders and terrorists”.

Kodmani added: “I think if we say it’s a moment of truth, it’s a moment of truth for the global community, the United States, its allies, the U.N. And it’s a tragic moment for the population of Aleppo”. “We ask Washington to take action on military, diplomatic and political level to protect the Syrian people”.

About 200 airstrikes have pummeled neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo since Friday morning, said Ammar al-Selmo, the head of the Syria Civil Defense group, a volunteer emergency medical service.

The Syrian army said in a statement that the rebels violated the week-long truce over 300 times, adding that the USA -led coalition struck positions of the Syrian army during the truce in Deir al-Zour, killing 90 soldiers, which was deemed by Russian Federation as the biggest violation to the truce.

Elizabeth Hoff, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Syria, told Reuters on Wednesday that the United Nations health agency planned to deliver medical supplies on Thursday to the rebel-held besieged Damascus suburb of Moadamiya, subject to the normal security risk assessments.

The captured area – elevated ground overlooking one of the main roads into Aleppo – had been in rebel hands for years.

“Breaking the siege through the Castello Road has become very hard”, Yassin Abu Raed, an opposition activist based in Aleppo province, told The Associated Press.

The U.N. estimates 600,000 Syrians are trapped in various sieges enforced by the government, rebels, and the Islamic State group across the country. The camp, which is nearly empty and largely destroyed, has seen intense fighting and bombardment in recent years, and changed hands multiple times.

Russia, which intervened a year ago to prop up Assad, fears turmoil in his absence and thinks his regime is too fragile for major change, say multiple Russian foreign policy sources. It said “the criminal campaign aims to settle global accounts at the expense of Syrians’ blood”.

Diplomatic efforts in NY have failed to salvage a Syria cease-fire that lasted almost a week, before giving way to what residents and activists say is a new level of violence. But the deal has fallen apart, and on Thursday the Syrian army announced an operation to retake all of Aleppo, urging civilians in the east to distance themselves from “terrorists” and promising them safe passage to government-controlled areas.

Aleppo has been an epicenter of fighting in recent months.

Living conditions in the already-battered eastern districts have meanwhile grown even worse.

“Depriving children of water puts them at risk of catastrophic outbreaks of waterborne diseases and adds to the suffering, fear and horror that children in Aleppo live through every day”, said Hanaa Singer, UNICEF’s representative in Syria.