EU Slams Latest Bombings in Aleppo
The European Union expressed condemnation of the deliberate and deadly attacks on civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo, citing the attacks as a “breach of international humanitarian law.”
Documented in an ABC report, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and humanitarian commissioner Christos Stylianides said, “The indiscriminate suffering being caused among innocent civilians is an unacceptable breach of international humanitarian law.”
Both top EU officials also denounced the shelling and deliberate targeting of an aid convoy last week which the US blamed on Russian planes.
The latest attacks in Aleppo that destroyed the main water pipe lines also drew concern from the UN children’s agency. The agency said it left almost 2 million people in the city without access to running water and endangered the lives of many people.
The Eastern part of Aleppo was bombarded by at least 200 airstrikes since Friday week. That left more than a hundred dead and wounded more than a hundred civilians. As yet unconfirmed reports also say that many are still under the rubble.
Calling to End the Attacks
The top EU officials included in their statement in Brussels for the backers of the Assad regime and the supporters of the opposition “to apply the maximum pressure to cease the attacks.”
They added that the deadly attacks against civilians in Aleppo will only delay settlements and the realization of a peace resolution.
They said, “It risks to take us ever further from a negotiated settlement of the conflict, which remains the only way of bringing it to an end.”
Mogherini and Stylianides also called for the warring parties to allow humanitarian access to those who are suffering and in need of aid.
Life in Syria
Human suffering has been evident in eastern Aleppo and other besieged cities and towns. Thousands of Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid particularly food, medicine and other supplies.
The country’s civil war that erupted in 2010/11 has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people and triggered a refugee crisis.