LIVE UPDATES: The previous post in our Putin in Syria column can be found here.
Starting July 28, he has begun relaying reports from sources inside besieged Aleppo. Here is his latest dispatch:
Report from besieged Aleppo, Wednesday Aug. 3 Day 24
MORE CARNAGE: At least 40 people were killed in besieged eastern Aleppo Wednesday in a series of devastating airstrikes by the Syrian regime or its Russian ally, the Aleppo Siege Media Center said.
FEARS RISE IN REGIME SECTORS: The population in regime-held Aleppo has been psychologically shaken by rapid advances of rebel forces, the opposition Orient Net website reported. Regime TV broadcast videos Wednesday to reassure the public that they weren’t about to be besieged by rebel forces. In fact rebel advances slowed: government forces pushed rebels back from two villages south of Aleppo.
ATTACK ON FOOD CONVOY: Unidentified warplanes targeted vehicles in Aleppo’s western countryside carrying food aid to the town of Al Atarib, destroying the trucks and killing six civilians, a Local Coordination Committee correspondent reported.
UNICEF ON THE RISK TO CHILDREN: “Children in Aleppo city are again facing terrible threats from new intense attacks and fighting in the western parts of the city… around 120,000 children are among the nearly 300,000 people cut off from life-saving humanitarian aid in the east.” (Excerpt from a report Wednesday)
HOSPITAL BOMBINGS AT NEW HIGH: The nine days between July 23 and 31 constituted the worst period for medical facilities since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Physicians for Human Rights said Wednesday. PHR said it had verified deadly strikes by the regime or Russia against six hospitals, including three on hospitals in eastern Aleppo in a 24-hour period. “Each of these assaults constitutes a war crime,” PHR director of programs Widney Brown said. “Destroying hospitals is tantamount to signing thousands of death warrants for people now stranded in eastern Aleppo.”
Six Aleppo hospitals struck by Syrian Government air strikes: relief agency
Posted August 04, 2016 09:19:31 Six hospitals in the Syrian city of Aleppo were hit by Government air strikes last week in what a medical relief agency said amounted to war crimes. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said it was the worst week for attacks on medical facilities in the Aleppo region since the beginning of Syria's five-year conflict.
The weapon is used by both the Russian and Syrian air forces.
— Pierre Vaux