Arab League, OIC condemn Aleppo bloodshed

By Hussein Mahmoud and Khaled Ibrahim

CAIRO (AA) – The Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday condemned civilian bloodshed in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

In statement, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit termed the ongoing airstrikes by Syrian regime and Russian warplanes in Aleppo as “brutal”.

“This dangerous escalation reflects the misbelief by some parties of the possibility of imposing a military solution on the ground,” he said.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has recently come under intense attacks by regime and Russian forces, with the latest attacks on Saturday killing over 90, and injuring more than 270 civilians.

OIC Secretary-General Iyad Madani, for his part, denounced the bombardment of civilian areas in Aleppo and attacks on aid convoys in the war-battered city.

In a statement, Madani called on the international community to intervene to halt the ongoing bloodshed in Aleppo.

Since Sept. 19, when the Syrian regime declared the end of a week-long cease-fire, at least 359 civilians have been killed and 1,407 injured by the Assad regime and Russian airstrikes on Aleppo, according to civil defense officials and medical sources in the city.

The attacks have targeted districts in the eastern part of Aleppo besieged by regime forces.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which had erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, a Beirut-based nongovernmental organization, has put the death toll from the six-year-old conflict at more than 470,000.