Missiles batter Aleppo as truce fails

BEIRUT: Missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Syria''s Aleppo today, causing widespread destruction that overwhelmed rescue teams, as the Russian-backed Syrian army declared an ground offensive to fully capture Syria''s biggest city, killing off any hope of reviving a ceasefire.

Future in peril: Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, retrieve bodies from under the rubble of a building following a reported airstrike in Aleppo on Friday. Reuters

BEIRUT, September 23

Missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Syria's Aleppo today, causing widespread destruction that overwhelmed rescue teams, as the Russian-backed Syrian army declared an ground offensive to fully capture Syria's biggest city, killing off any hope of reviving a ceasefire.

Video images filmed by residents showed a young girl screaming as rescuers frantically dug her out of rubble, pulling her out alive. Another showed rescuers digging out a toddler with their bare hands, shouting "God is Great" as they lift him from the debris. The boy showed no signs of life as he was rushed off in a rescuer's arms.

The apparent collapse of US-backed peacemaking may mark a turning point in the five-year civil war, with the government and its Russian and Iranian allies now seemingly determined to crush the rebellion in its biggest urban stronghold.

"Can you hear it? The neighbourhood is getting hit right now by missiles. We can hear the planes right now," Mohammad Abu Rajab, a radiologist, told Reuters. "The planes are not leaving the sky, helicopters, barrel bombs, warplanes." The Civil Defence rescue group that operates in opposition areas said at least 70 people had been killed and 40 buildings destroyed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring body gave an initial death toll of 27.

Ammar al Selmo, the head The bombing came after the Syrian army announced overnight that it was launching an operation to recapture the rebel-held sector of the city. Western diplomats fear a bloodbath if the government unleashes a full-blown assault to capture the besieged opposition-held zone, where 250,000 civilians are still trapped.

"The only way to take eastern Aleppo is by such a monstrous atrocity that it would resonate for generations. It would be the stuff of history," one Western diplomat said.

The assault left no doubt that the government of President Bashar al-Assad and its Russian allies had spurned a plea from US Secretary of State John Kerry to halt flights to resurrect the ceasefire, which collapsed on Monday. — Agencies