ALEPPO, Syria, Oct. 13 (UPI) — At least 81 civilians died on Wednesday in Aleppo after more than 50 airstrikes blamed on Russia and the Syrian regime struck the eastern sector of the embattled Syrian city.
About 87 people were wounded from the airstrikes, including some who are in critical condition. Ibrahim Abu Leith, a spokesman for the Syrian Civil Defense — also known as The White Helmets — told Al Jazeera on Thursday that rescue workers were “still working to pull people from the rubble.”
At least 45 people were killed in Aleppo’s Fardous neighborhood, Abu Leith added. Brita Haj Hassan, the mayor of Aleppo, has condemned the international community for failing to stop the Syrian regime under President Bashar al-Assad.
“We consider the international community as partners in these war crimes,” Haj Hassan told Sky News on Thursday. “There is a holocaust going on in Aleppo right now. Aleppo is burning and the international community is just watching and doing nothing.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports at least 564 people have died in Syria since a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia broke down on Sept. 19. At least 334 civilians have been killed in eastern Aleppo, the U.K.-based group said. There are at least 275,000 people remaining in the decimated city in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet on Saturday — along with other officials possibly from Turkey and Saudi Arabia — in Lausanne, Switzerland, in attempts to reestablish negotiations to create a peace agreement in the Syrian civil war.
