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AFP
Aleppo
Air strikes and ferocious artillery bombardment pounded rebel-held east Aleppo on Friday as an escalating military offensive underscored the Syrian regime's determination to take full control of the divided city.
Streets were deserted and residents took refuge indoors as the government unleashed a fourth straight day of bombardment on opposition-controlled parts of Syria's second city.
The artillery fire was the most intense in east Aleppo in around two years, AFP's correspondent there said, while rescue workers said it was too dangerous to move around bomb-scarred neighbourhoods.
"I have never heard such intense artillery bombardments," said Najib Fakhoury, head of the White Helmets volunteer rescue group in the rebel-held Ansari district.
"Earlier, we received a call for help to extinguish a fire," he said."But we cannot go because the shells are falling on the streets."
Aleppo has been ravaged by some of the worst violence of the five-year war, which has displaced more than half the county's population and killed more than 300,000 people. President Bashar al-Assad's Russian-backed government has carried out several bombing campaigns this year but has failed to dislodge the rebels from east Aleppo, where more than 250,000 residents are under army siege. page 12
