Jump directly to the content
BOMB BABY

Children dice with death as they play with a huge unexploded Russian bomb on the streets of Aleppo

A TINY baby sits on top of a huge unexploded Russian bomb as Syrian children turn Aleppo's battlefront into a giant playground.

The youngsters seem oblivious to the dangers surrounding them as the besieged city came under heavy fire for a fifth day running.

 A baby no more than a year old sits atop the bomb in Anjara, Aleppo
5
A baby no more than a year old sits atop the bomb in Anjara, AleppoCredit: Rex Features
 Dozens of children are believed to have died over the past week
5
Dozens of children are believed to have died over the past weekCredit: Rex Features
 The youngsters try to find some kind of normality amidst the bloodshed
5
The youngsters try to find some kind of normality amidst the bloodshedCredit: Rex Features

Dozens of people including children have been killed in rebel held areas.

The fatalities happened in a wave of air strikes, barrel bombs and intense artillery fire.

All hospitals in Syria's besieged rebel-held eastern Aleppo are out of service after days of heavy air strikes, its health directorate and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

"This destruction of infrastructure essential to life leaves the besieged, resolute people, including all children and elderly men and women, without any health facilities offering life-saving treatment ... leaving them to die," said Aleppo's health directorate.

Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in Syria, said a UN-led group of aid agencies based over the border in Turkey "confirmed today that all hospitals in eastern Aleppo are out of service."

Medical sources, residents and rebels in eastern Aleppo say hospitals have been damaged by air strikes and helicopter barrel bombs in recent days, including direct hits on the buildings.

Health and rescue workers have previously been able to bring damaged hospitals back into operation but a lack of supplies is making that harder.

Intense air strikes have battered eastern Aleppo since Tuesday when the Syrian army and its allies resumed operations after a pause lasting weeks.

They launched ground attacks against insurgent positions on Friday.

Syrian state television said the air force had targeted "terrorist strongholds and supply depots" in Aleppo.

Russia has said its air force is only conducting air strikes in other parts of Syria. The Damascus government describes all the rebels fighting it as terrorists.

Both countries have denied deliberately targeting hospitals and other civilian infrastructure during the war, which began in 2011 and was joined by Russia's air force in September 2015.

 Hospitals and buildings in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood have been devastated
5
Hospitals and buildings in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood have been devastatedCredit: AP:Associated Press
 A wounded Syrian receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in eastern Aleppo
5
A wounded Syrian receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in eastern AleppoCredit: Getty Images

The war pits President Bashar al-Assad backed by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite militias against Sunni rebels including groups supported by the US, Turkey and jihadist groups.

Aleppo, for years split between a rebel-held east and government-held western sector, has become Syria's bloodiest battlefront.

Warplanes, artillery and helicopters continued bombarding eastern Aleppo today, hitting many of its densely populated residential districts.

Topics