(AP) Government bombardment of besieged rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo killed at least 20 people Saturday, the worst since airstrikes resumed earlier this week, said Syrian opposition activists, as the U.S. called for an end to the bombings.
It was the fifth day of renewed assaults by Syrian warplanes on eastern Aleppo districts, a rebel-held enclave of 275,000 people. The onslaught began Tuesday, when Syria’s ally Russia announced its own offensive on the northern rebel-controlled Idlib province and Homs province in central Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some hospitals in east Aleppo neighborhoods are still in service but people are finding difficulties reaching them because of the intensity of the shelling.
The White House, meanwhile, demanded an immediate halt to Syrian strikes on eastern Aleppo. White House national security advisor Susan Rice said the U.S. is tracking reports about health conditions.
Speaking in Peru, Rice said the U.S. condemns the “horrific attacks” against hospitals and aid workers “in the strongest possible terms.” Rice added there was “no excuse” for the attacks.
The White House is putting the onus on Russia to lower the violence and help humanitarian aid get to besieged Syrians. It says President Obama joins other leaders in Europe, and those gathering for an Asia economic summit in Peru over the weekend, in demanding a halt to bombings.
Opposition activists said Saturday’s death toll has been the worst since the aerial campaign resumed on Tuesday. Residents said hundreds of artillery shells and dozens of airstrikes have hit the city, increasing the misery of its residents, who have been suffering from lack of food and medicine because of the siege imposed by government forces and their allies in July.
“Aleppo is being wiped out in front of the eyes of the world,” medical official Mohammed Abu Rajab said in an audio message to the Associated Press from inside the city. “It’s not only hospitals that are out of service. All liberated areas in Aleppo are out of service.”
“Entire buildings have been completely destroyed,” Abu Rajab said.
The observatory said Syrian government warplanes and artillery struck more than 20 neighborhoods in east Aleppo, killing 27 people and wounding many others.
The Aleppo Media Council, an activist collective, said 20 people, including children, were killed in Saturday’s violence in the country’s largest city and former commercial center.
Pro-government media, meanwhile, reported rebel shelling on government-held parts of the city, saying the attacks killed two and wounded others.
The latest deaths raise to more than 130 the number of people killed in northern Syria since Tuesday.
The United Nations said in a statement released in Damascus that it “is extremely saddened and appalled by the recent escalation in fighting” in several parts of Syria, calling on all sides to cease indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructures.
It said the U.N. stands ready to assist people in east Aleppo “as soon as access is granted by all parties.”