At least 21 people — including four children — were killed in a Syrian regime blitz over war-ravaged eastern Aleppo on Wednesday that pounded hospitals, a blood bank and targets near schools, activists and medical staff said.
The Al-Shaar neighborhood appeared to be the worst hit, with nine barrel bombs striking the Children’s Hospital, Al-Bayan Hospital and the Central Blood Bank, staff on site with the Syrian American Medical Association (SAMS) told CNN. Buildings nearby were completely flattened.
At least 50 others have been wounded, the activist group Aleppo Media Center said.
Children’s Hospital Director Dr. Hatem said there were closer to 20 barrel bombs dropped on the facility and that its staff was hunkering down in the basement as the bombardment continued.
”A horrible day for the Children’s Hospital. Me and my staff and all the patients are sitting in one room in the basement right now, trying to protect our patients,” Hatem said in a statement obtained by CNN through SAMS.
“We are trying to leave the basement but we can’t because of all the aircraft still in the sky. We will try to get out when the airstrikes leave our sky. Pray for us please,” said Hatem, one of the last three pediatricians working at the hospital.
The Aleppo Media Center said the four children confirmed killed were in the neighborhood of al-Sukkari and that there may be more among the total of 21 people killed. A medic was also among the dead, it said.
Other children were also wounded in a strike near a school in the Salaheddin neighborhood, the AMC said.
A picture posted on the AMC’s Facebook page showed children from another area, Karam al-Beik, fleeing — still wearing their school backpacks — through rubble from obliterated buildings, including a young girl in tears holding hands with another.
Wednesday’s bombardment has been mainly focused on an area called al-Shaar, where five medical facilities are located.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, confirmed the strikes. CNN has not been able to independently verify them, having little access to the area.
Blitz after text message warning
The strikes mark the second day of heavy bombardment by the Syrian regime, after a dire text message was sent en masse to residents in the east, essentially telling them to flee or be killed in the bombings.
There had been a three-week lull in eastern Aleppo air raids before the Syrian government blitzed the area Tuesday, using what the regime called “precision weapons to target terrorist positions.”
Rebels took control of eastern Aleppo in 2014, and government forces continue their siege of the area, battering it from above with the help of Russian air power.
Moscow has sought to distance itself from the blitz, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov saying Wednesday that the Russian air force had not carried out the Aleppo strikes, according to state-run news agency Tass.
“Our strikes in Syria are proportionate, surgical and precise,” he said.
Trump: Assad’s friend or foe?
Questions are now swirling over how US President-elect Donald Trump might approach the war, which has seen the US and Russia on opposing sides on many counts.
Central to the row is the question of which groups in the conflict are regarded as terrorist groups. The old Cold War enemies agreed to target ISIS, but the US has armed and supported what it calls moderate rebel groups to fight ISIS, many of which also oppose the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad told Portugal’s RTP TV that Trump could be a “natural ally” to his government, but said he was dubious Trump could influence all the decision-makers to change the US strategy.
Trump has previously suggested that he is opposed to targeting the Assad regime and ISIS at the same time, and has said he is willing to work with Assad.
“Of course, I would say this is promising. But can he deliver? Can he go in that regard? What about the countervailing forces within the administration? The mainstream media that were against him? How can he deal with it?” Assad said.
“That’s why for us it’s still dubious whether he can do or live up to his promises or not. That’s why we are very cautious in judging him, especially as he wasn’t in a political position before. So, we cannot tell anything about what he’s going to do. But if, let’s say, if he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be (an) ally, natural ally, in that regard with (Russia, with Iran) with many other countries who wanted to defeat the terrorists,” he said.
“But we always say we have wishful thinking that the Unites States would be unbiased, respect the international law, doesn’t interfere in other countries around the world, and of course to stop supporting terrorists in Syria.”
Eastern Aleppo has become the wretched center of Syria’s five-year conflict and the regime’s siege has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe there, as food, water and medical supplies run low.