At least 11 people killed in regime air strikes on Aleppo

(Zaman Al Wasl)-At least 11 people have been killed in regime air strike on Aleppo, activists said as regime and Russian jets extend aerial bombing on the war-torn province.

7 people were killed in strikes hit Qaterji neighborhood, 3 more wetr killed in Tariq al-Bab neighborhood and one person near Castello road.

In the northern countryside, powerful Qonquest Army said it has seized control of Khalsa and Zaitan towns aftrr 4 days of heavy clashes with regime forces.

Rebels said at least 30 militants loyal to Bashar al-Assad killed Thursday in Khalsa battlefield.

Meanwhile, hit-an-run battles continued between Islamic State fighter and the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) near the Turkish border.

In the eastern countryside, ISIS has retreated from three villages near besieged Manbij town to SDF favor.  

 

Ahmed al-Mohamed, media activist, told Zaman al-Wasl that Manbij had been endured to severe siege by the Kurdish-led forces. "People have been without electricity, water and food for the seventh day," he said.

Aid has been cut from rebel-held areas of Aleppo for the longest period since the Syrian civil war began due to an escalation in air strikes and bombardments, driving up food prices and choking efforts to ease the plight of residents.

"For the last few weeks we have not been able to bring supplies into (Aleppo) city itself," said Christy Delafield, senior communications officer for Mercy Corps, which runs the largest non-governmental aid operation inside Syria.

"The shelling is hourly, it has been a significant increase," she told Reuters in a phone interview from Turkey. "This is the longest stretch we haven't been able to get in."

Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the civil war with a population of more than two million people, has been divided for years into rebel and government sectors. Capturing Aleppo is one of Assad's key strategic objectives.

The opposition-held part of Aleppo has been cut off from the outside world by the escalation in air and artillery strikes on the only road in, putting hundreds of thousands of people under effective siege.

Between 200,000 and 300,000 people are still thought to live in the rebel sector, the Syrian Observatory said, in harsh conditions made worse by the latest attempt to besiege them by cutting off the Castello Road, named after Aleppo's old castle. The route has been dubbed the "Road of death". (With Reuters)