Humanitarian Problems Grow in Besieged Aleppo

The Associated Press

Published: August 1, 2012 (Issue # 1720)

BEIRUT — Humanitarian conditions have grown even more dire in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo with activists reporting dwindling stocks of food and cooking gas and only intermittent electricity supplies Tuesday as droves of residents flee 11 days of intense clashes between rebels and regime forces.

Government helicopters pounded rebel neighborhoods across Syria’s largest city and main commercial hub. Activists said the random shelling has forced many civilians to flee to other neighborhoods or even escape the city altogether. The UN said late Sunday that about 200,000 had fled the city of about 3 million.

“The humanitarian situation here is very bad,” Mohammed Saeed, an activist living in the city, told The Associated Press by Skype. “There is not enough food and people are trying to leave. We really need support from the outside. There is random shelling against civilians,” he added. “The city has pretty much run out of cooking gas, so people are cooking on open flames or with electricity, which cuts out a lot.”

He said shells were falling on the southwestern neighborhoods of Salaheddine and Seif al-Dawla, rebel strongholds since the rebel Free Syrian Army began its assault on Aleppo 11 days ago.

The United Nations has expressed concern over the use of heavy weapons, especially in Aleppo, while the Syria’s neighbors in the Arab League have issued even stronger denunciations.

“The massacres that are happening in Aleppo and other places in Syria amount to war crimes that are punishable under international law,” Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said following a meeting in Cairo at the League’s headquarters.

The official Syrian news agency said government forces were pursuing the “remnants of armed terrorist groups” in Salaheddine and inflicting heavy losses. President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime regularly refers to opposition fighters as terrorists.

But the rebels denied that the government has succeeded in penetrating the neighborhood with its tanks.

Rebels have captured a number of government tanks in operations against army positions outside the city, including the town of al-Bab and the village of Anand. Saeed said they planned to use them in future operations.

The taking of Anand has also opened the road to the Turkish border, where the rebels get many of their supplies and manpower. It is also the main escape route for refugees streaming out of Aleppo.

Many of those who have fled may be taking refuge with relatives in the countryside, remaining inside Syria, while others reached the camps inside Turkey.

“The helicopters were hurting people because the regime couldn’t enter the neighborhoods, so they were shelling from a distance with helicopters and artillery,” said Mohammed Nabehan, who had fled Aleppo for the Kilis refugee camp just across the border.

He said the humanitarian situation in the city was serious and there was little food.

According to the Turkish prime minister’s office, there are some 44,000 Syrian refugees being sheltered in tent cities and temporary housing in camps along the border. While Turkish authorities say they have yet to see a massive upsurge in refugees from Aleppo, they are prepared to house up to 100,000.

Jordan, for its part, has also begun building a tent camp to house refugees along the border — something it was initially reluctant to do for fear of embarrassing Syria by calling attention to its refugee problem. But with 142,000 Syrians having already fled across the border, according to the Jordanian government, they needed to create the facilities to house them all. Jordan said this week that up to 2,000 new refugees are arriving daily.