Aleppo residents still live in 'state of terror'

A Syrian family runs for cover following a reported airstrike

Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2016 - How much fighting has to take place before a shaky truce in Syria is declared to have broken down?
A 'system of calm' announced by the Syrian military may have restored a semblance of normality in some parts of the country Saturday, but in the divided city of Aleppo, residents described a 'state of terror' for the ninth consecutive day.
Pro-opposition activists uploaded horrific videos of shell-shocked people emerging from the wreckage of buildings covered in a film of dust and blood.
'From morning until 1 in the afternoon, you had more than 20 air raids by the Syrian air force,' said Bebars Meshaal, a member of the Aleppo Civil Defense unit, a rescue team that works in rebel-held areas of Syria's largest city.
Moments later, he said he had just heard a jet flying over the city to begin another bombing run.


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'Markets in Aleppo were nearly empty today, and I saw only a dozen people coming out to what is thought to be a safe area of the city,' said an administrator of a pro-government Facebook page that focuses on news from the Aleppo region. 'There are many casualties among the people here, and official state media is downplaying the numbers to reduce the shock among the country's citizens.'
Reached via the Whats-app messaging service, he declined to have his name published for safety reasons.
The sharp spike in fighting in and around Aleppo has killed more than 250 people since April 22, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group. The figure includes 148 people killed in rebel-held areas and 96 in government-held parts of the city.
The main opposition delegation at peace talks in Geneva walked out in protest of the escalating violence. Even the usually optimistic U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, described the cessation of hostilities brokered by the United States and Russia in February as 'barely alive.'
The city's reputation as the one-time industrial heart of Syria's economy has become a distant memory, as the fighting has rendered much of it a charred wasteland. Neither the government nor rebel factions have been able to take control of Aleppo, whose proximity to the Turkish border as well as symbolic importance make it a prize that could help deliver a wider victory.
The government's supporters argue that Aleppo should not be part of the truce because the Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate, is active there and in nearby areas. However, Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Syrian observatory, lamented the uptick in fighting in Aleppo, which he contrasted with the relatively tranquil day people experienced in other parts of the country.
'There was nothing in Latakia and Damascus,' he said in a telephone interview Saturday. 'But in the case of Aleppo, it appears there is no will by Russia to stop the government's attack.'
Russia, which deployed its warplanes in September to buttress Syrian President Bashar Assad's flagging troops, has worked with the U.S. to push for a political settlement. However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennadiy Gatilov told the Interfax news agency Saturday that Moscow is not going to put pressure on Damascus over Aleppo because 'the situation in Aleppo is part of this fight against the terrorist threat.'