The French Ambassador to the United Nations has said that war crimes are currently being committed in the Syrian city of Aleppo, reports The Independent.
Speaking at an emergency United Nations meeting on Sunday called to discuss President Bashar al-Assad’s escalating military offensive, François Delattre said that the Syrian government is targeting civilians in the northern city, where 250,000 people live under siege conditions.
Rebel-held parts of Aleppo have been under a renewed aerial onslaught by the Syrian and Russian air forces since the Syrian military announced a new campaign to retake the city on Thursday.
Ground forces have succeeded in retaking the Palestinian camp of Handarat in the north of Aleppo from rebels, but have been repelled in other areas so far.
At least 200 people have been killed in one of the bloodiest weeks in Syria’s almost six-year-long war, monitors said, but it has been so difficult to document the numbers of wounded and casualties because of the intense bombing that the death toll is expected to rise.
“What’s happening now is annihilation,” Ammar al-Selmo, the head of the local civil defence rescue service, told Reuters this week.
Hospitals are full, so some people are receiving treatment on the floor or in makeshift clinics, doctors said.
More than two million people in both rebel and government held parts of the city are also without water.
“War crimes are being committed here in Aleppo,” Mr Delattre said in his speech to UN delegates in New York. “They must not be unpunished and impunity is simply not an option in Syria.”