Aleppo: Syrian regime, Russia target main rebel supply route

A new wave of heavy bombardment targeted a key rebel supply route to Aleppo on Sunday, as Syrian regime and Russian airstrikes escalate air raids on Syria's second largest city.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

22 May, 2016

The violence wracking Aleppo city over the past month killed around 300 civilians [Anadolu]

The only road leading to rebel-held areas in Aleppo was struck by Syrian regime and Russian airstrikes on Sunday, activists told The New Arab.

Castello road, a key rebel supply route to Aleppo, and its surrounding areas saw heavy bombardment on Sunday following a week of escalating air raids.

"A number of children were among the injured at Bab al-Nasr neighbourhood in the old city of Aleppo as a result of the airstrikes," activist Mansour Hussein told The New Arab.

"Russian and Syrian warplanes launched a series of air raids at the entrance of Aleppo city," Hussein said, "The strikes were most intense on Castello road, the main supply route used by the Syrian opposition."

Castello road provides the only route into the city where some 300,000 Syrians live.

The air raids were "the heaviest since February," head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, "They are also the first confirmed Russian strikes since the truce began."

Aleppo city has seen devastating violence in the past month, leaving over 300 civilians killed and world powers struggling to save a fragile US-Russia-brokered truce which started nearly three months ago.

The northern city, Syria's second city and once commercial hub, has been divided between opposition groups to the east and Syrian forces to the west.

Russia intervened in Syria's five-year-civil war last September carrying out air strikes in support of its ally president Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow's involvement has strengthened the Syrian government’s position significantly in a war that has killed well over 270,000 people and created millions of refugees.