At least 12 civilians have lost their lives and over 200 others sustained injuries in a string of attacks launched by foreign-backed militants on several neighborhoods of the battered Syrian city of Aleppo.
Syria’s official SANA news agency released the number of casualties caused by Tuesday’s assaults by terrorists positioned in eastern Aleppo as well as in the western countryside of the province with same name.
According to the report, Mohammd Joulaq, a photographer from Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam television news network, was among those injured in the attacks. His wounds were slight.
The militant rockets and gunfire hit the neighborhoods of Halab al-Jadideh, al-Mogambo, al-Masharqeh and al-Furqan, where shells struck the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. There was also a double car bomb attack.
A girl child was among those dead, an unnamed source at Aleppo Police Command said, adding that the attacks caused material damage to public and private properties.
An unidentified medical source at al-Jamiaa (University) Hospital also noted that the medical center received a person suffering suffocation due to an attack on the Minian district, where terrorists used poisonous gas.
Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that militants have been engaged in fierce fighting with government forces in several districts of Aleppo’s western outskirts.
The UK-based monitoring group said the “most intense fighting” was on the edges of the Halab al-Jadideh neighborhood.
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, remains divided between government forces in the west and foreign-backed terrorists in the east, making it a frontline battleground.
Russian warship departs for Syrian coast
In another development on Thursday, Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich left the port of Sevastopol and headed to the Mediterranean Sea to bolster Russia’s military presence there.
Equipped with artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and the advanced Kalibr missile system, the frigate is expected to join other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast.
“The Black Sea Fleet’s latest missile frigate Admiral Grigorovich leaves the base today and heads to the Mediterranean Sea, where it will join the group of Russian ships on the Syrian coast,” an unnamed source in Crimea’s uniformed services told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western countries and their regional allies.
Russia has been conducting airstrikes against Daesh and other terrorist groups in the Arab country at the Damascus government’s request for more than a year now.
