Warplanes battered Aleppo with the fiercest bombardment of the five-year civil war in Syria as Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's forces launched another campaign to retake the rebels' last big urban stronghold.
The Syrian army, backed by Russian air cover, began the attack on Thursday, at the same time world powers in New York gathered to discuss the Syria crisis – a sign that international diplomacy has failed to salvage the country’s ceasefire deal.
Government forces have the rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo under siege, meaning that its 250,000 residents are trapped inside.
Residents said the ground shook beneath their feet from the strength of blasts that continued all night Thursday and all of yesterday.
Video uploaded by activists showed rescuers digging people out of the wreckage with their bare hands, and entire streets blown to pieces by the bombardment.
"It's like Aleppo has been in a storm for two days . . . I haven't seen anything like this in the past five years," said Mohammed Abu Rajab, a radiologist in one of the opposition-held neighbourhoods.
“We have just one message to the world today: We are pleading for them to help us stop these warplanes. Leave us under siege, we will deal with thirst and hunger. But please, stop these bombs.”
Watershed moment
The offensive could be a watershed moment of the war if Mr Assad’s backers,
Russia
and
Iran
, pump in enough support to help him take Aleppo, which is split between rebels and regime forces.
As the opposition’s last urban stronghold, Aleppo would be an important strategic and political win for the regime.
Mr Assad’s forces will probably struggle to take the city; rebels have dug fortifications and underground tunnels.
But if the offensive continues with the same ferocity, it threatens being one of the most horrific battles of a war that has already taken more than 300,000 lives.
“The only way to take eastern Aleppo is by such monstrous atrocity that it would resonate for generations,” a western diplomat said. “It would be the stuff of history.”
US secretary of state John Kerry said the only way to revive the ceasefire plan was for all military aircraft to be barred from flying missions over contested areas of the country.
In Aleppo, the rescue group known as the White Helmets said about 70 people were killed yesterday and 40 buildings destroyed.
Video uploaded by activists showed blasts lighting up the sky, shooting spirals of smoke and debris into the air.
Rescue workers say four hospitals and two rescue centres were bombed.
Activists in the city posted photographs of residents using sheets and stretchers to pull out the dead and wounded, as well as piles of burned, mangled limbs.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016)