Hope lies buried in the ruins of Aleppo

AMMAN: Warplanes bombed a strategic camp on the northern edge of Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government and rebel forces battled for control of the high ground in a Russian-backed offensive that has left Washington’s Syria policy in tatters.

Planes also continued to pound residential parts of the town, flattening buildings, rebels and residents said. More than 250,000 civilians are trapped in the besieged opposition sector and there is growing concern about the escalation in violence since a ceasefire, announced just two weeks ago, unravelled.

Aleppo residents cower under air strike frenzy

Aleppo: Residents in Syria’s battleground city of Aleppo cowered indoors on Saturday as fierce air strikes toppled buildings and killed at least 25 civilians, after diplomatic efforts to revive a ceasefire failed.

Nearly two million civilians were without water in the devastated northern city after regime bombardment damaged a pumping station and rebels shut down another in retaliation, the United Nations said.

Rebel-held districts in east Aleppo came under intense air and artillery fire for a fifth night as the army prepared a ground offensive to recapture the whole of the divided city.

Missiles batter Aleppo as Syria army readies ground assault

ALEPPO: Missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Syria’s Aleppo on Friday, causing widespread destruction that overwhelmed rescue teams, as the army prepared a ground offensive to retake the city.

Nearly 30 civilians including several children were killed and dozens wounded in the raids by Russian warplanes and regime aircraft, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

Syria ceasefire takes effect under US-Russia deal

 ALEPPO: A ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States took effect in Syria at sundown Monday, despite scepticism over how long the truce in the five-year conflict would hold.

The initial 48-hour truce came into force at 1600 GMT across Syria except in areas held by militants like the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

Syria's armed forces immediately announced a seven-day “freeze” on military operations, lasting to midnight next Sunday.

But opposition forces had yet to formally sign on and the deal's fragility, which was underscored just hours before sundown when President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake the whole country from “terrorists”.

The agreement, announced Friday after marathon talks between Russia and the United States, has been billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in Syria's insurgency which has raged since March 2011.

Syria swaps prisoners for Russian airmen bodies

BEIRUT: The Syrian government has begun releasing 169 prisoners in exchange for the return of the bodies of five Russian soldiers killed when their helicopter was downed, a lawyer said Wednesday.

“On Tuesday, 50 inmates including seven women were set free from Adra prison and 84 others from Hama prison,” Michel Chammas, who represents many of them, told AFP by phone from Germany.

Baby fights for life in besieged Syrian town

Nairobi: Two-month-old Isra Khattab has liver blockage and breathing problems but is unable to receive critical life-saving medical treatment because her town in the Houla area of northern Homs has been under siege by the Syrian regime since 2012.

Speaking to Gulf News, her father pleaded for the world to take action. “If we don’t get treatment soon, she will not survive,” Ahmad said.

Doctors in Houla are unable to treat her complicated condition due to a severe shortage of doctors and medicines.

Houla’s 70,000 residents have been