Two largest hospitals bombed in Aleppo

Aleppo / AFP

An air strike and artillery fire hit the two largest hospitals in rebel-held parts of Syria’s Aleppo on Wednesday, in what rights groups said was a deliberate strategy of targeting civilian infrastructure.
President Bashar Al Assad’s forces and his ally Moscow have carried out a barrage of air strikes on opposition-controlled eastern Aleppo since Syria’s regime announced a bid last week to retake all of the divided city.
Dozens of civilians have been killed, residential buildings have been reduced to rubble and residents of eastern districts — already suffering under a government siege — are facing severe shortages of food and medical supplies.
The latest bombardment of the city has been some of the worst in Syria’s five-year civil war, and comes after the failure of a short-lived ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States earlier this month.
The two hospitals were struck just before dawn, with the M10 facility hit in an air strike and the M2 facility hit with artillery fire, said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical
Society (SAMS), which supports both hospitals.
The attacks put both facilities temporarily out of commission and left only six hospitals operational in the eastern parts of the city, Sahloul said, calling the attacks “deliberate”.
“I am in the M2 hospital now. I was inside when the entrance to the emergency room was hit. Three of my colleagues were hurt,” said Aref al-Aref, a medical assistant trapped inside. “Everyone is terrified and scared today,” he said.
‘Death warrant for
hundreds’
Sahloul warned of devastating consequences if the hospitals remain closed and violence spiked as it did with heavy strikes over the weekend.
“With these two hospitals gone, if today there is another offensive like Saturday or Sunday, this is signing the death warrant for hundreds of people,” he said. The World Health Organization on Tuesday warned that medical facilities in the city’s east were on the verge of “complete destruction”.
More than 170 people have been killed in east Aleppo since Syria’s army announced its operation to retake the city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
On Wednesday, at least six civilians died in artillery fire by regime forces near a bakery in the opposition-controlled Maadi district, the Observatory said.
A hospital in the government-held west also reported two people had been killed and 10 injured in rebel fire on the Aziziyeh district.
Aleppo bombers will have to ‘answer before God’: Pope
Pope Francis said those behind the bombing of Aleppo will have to
“answer before God.”
“I appeal to the conscience of those responsible for the bombardment, who will have to answer before God,” the pope said at his weekly address in St Peter’s square, without naming Syria or Russia.
The Pope referred to Aleppo as a “battered city where children, the elderly, the sick, the young, the old are dying… so many people.”

World Bank releases $300mn
for Syrian refugees in Jordan

Washington / AFP

The World Bank announced it will release $300 million in loans to help
facilitate the labour market for Syrian refugees in Jordan.
The funds will be used to attract investors and create reforms that will help grant access to the Syrian labor force, the Bank said in a statement.
More Syrians will receive work permits and be able to “access formal jobs and decent labor conditions,” the statement said.
“By creating the conditions for increased investment and jobs, and by allowing refugees, during their time in the country, to seek work and contribute to the economy, Jordan is shifting from a purely humanitarian approach to a forward looking development drive,” said Ferid Belhaj, director of the Bank’s Middle East Department.
In creating favorable economic conditions for Syrian refugees in the country, Jordan will help lead the way for the international community in what “still today are unchartered territories,” he said.
Jordan says it currently hosts nearly 1.4 million refugees — with more than 600,000 registered with the United Nations.
Amman regularly complains of a lack of international aid for the refugees it hosts, saying it has “reached its limits.”
In early September the UN denounced the living conditions of some 70,000 Syrian refugees stranded at the border, where Jordan has blocked their entry and passage of aid after a suicide bombing claimed by the IS extremist group killed seven of its soldiers in the desert area.

Iranian FM holds talks on Syria

Istanbul / AFP

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday visited Ankara for his third set of talks with top Turkish officials in less than one-and-a-half-months despite standing on opposite sides of the Syria conflict, sources said.
Zarif met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in an unscheduled trip to Ankara on his way back to Tehran from a visit to New York for the UN General Assembly, a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP.
They discussed bilateral and regional issues, including the Syrian conflict, the source added.
Zarif was later due to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the premier’s office said.
Iran and Turkey stand on two opposing sides of the conflict in neighbouring Syria, with Tehran one of the few allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Ankara backing rebels fighting for his ouster.
Turkey has launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria, with the aim of cleansing its frontier of terror groups including IS extremists.
Ankara is also pressing for a safe zone inside its war-torn neighbour to shelter refugees.
Despite the differences over Syria — and Ankara’s increasingly close relationship with Tehran’s arch rival Saudi Arabia — the two countries have worked hard in the last months to preserve a strong relationship.
The visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic contacts between Turkey and Iran since the summer in the wake of the July 15 failed coup.
Tehran was swift to voice support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the attempted coup, winning praise from Ankara for its rapid reaction.
Cavusoglu made a surprise visit to Tehran in mid-August, after Zarif held talks in the Turkish capital the same month.