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Aleppo: Civilians killed in Islamist shelling
November 6, 2016, 9:56 am

Fighting in and around Aleppo has not subsided some groups said on Thursday, barring many civilians from leaving the city [Xinhua]

Fighting in and around Aleppo has not subsided some groups said on Thursday, barring many civilians from leaving the city [Xinhua]


An offensive by Islamist rebels, some of whom are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, has killed at least 74 civilians in government-held western Aleppo, human rights groups reported on Saturday.

Twenty-five of those killed were children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

On Saturday, a number of families leaving Aleppo through a ‘safety corridor’ afforded by the Russian and Syrian air forces reportedly came under rebel fire.

Both Russia and Syria, have several times declared unilateral cessation of air strikes in the war-torn city to give time to what they call a ‘humanitarian pause’.

The Islamist rebels last week launched a military operation to break the government’s siege on Aleppo.

The Russian military had reported that 80 civilians were killed in the first three days of that offensive.

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier blamed the Islamist terrorist group Al Nusra Front and its affiliates in eastern Aleppo for blocking humanitarian aid efforts to reach some 250,000 civilians.

The UN said it was unable to delivery aid because of security concerns.

“Representatives of UN humanitarian agencies should eliminate these obstacles, and cooperate with the countries which have an influence on the militants,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said last week.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies