An RT crew witnessed first-hand the aftermath of heavy rocket attacks on residential areas in the government-controlled areas of Aleppo. At least three people have been killed. A bomb landed on a house just sixty meters away from an RT car heading back after completing a report.
Three civilians, at least one of them an underage girl, died in the government-controlled part of the city, and 23 were injured according to RT’s Murad Gazdiev, currently reporting from Aleppo and citing his sources on the ground
The Syrian SANA news agency also put the death toll at three, and said 29 people were injured in the shelling.
Gazdiev reports that the attacks which started late Saturday night lasted well into the following day.
“Especially yesterday night it was very vicious, very tense,” Gazdiev said, adding that the shelling of government controlled areas “is not stopping” completely, rather varying its level.
According to the reporter, the attackers used so-called “gas bottle bombs” while pelting the residential areas.
“This is literally a gas bottle filled with explosives, nails and screws. These things are made to kill and destroy,” Gazdiev said, adding that lots of these bombs were used in the latest shelling.
He noted that the weapon is also “particularly dangerous” since it can seriously damage and even destroy houses.
According to RT’s reporter, one of the victims was a 13-year-old girl named Sara who was killed alongside her 20-year-old brother.
“From what we understand as of yet three people have died, including one under-aged girl, Sara is her name. Her brother, a 20-year-old student was also killed as well as one more woman,” Gazdiev said.
“As for Sara, we travelled to her house; there is tremendous destruction over there. And we saw and filmed the rescue workers basically picking her out of the rubble”.
Getting Sara’s body out of the rubble took several hours, the RT reporter said. The father “basically went crazy” over the loss of both his children, Gazdiev added.
He noted that more injured or killed could be found in the coming hours.
“It’s very dangerous here, there is lots of shelling. It is continuing and it is not stopping.”
The RT crew even witnessed a shell landing on the roof of a house which was “just 60 meters” away from the car Murad Gazdiev and his team were travelling in.
Aleppo is currently divided into the eastern part held by the militants, including Al-Nusra Front terrorists, and the rest of the city under the control of government forces.
Earlier in October, UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said he was ready to personally accompany Al-Nusra fighters out of the city so they could leave for other parts of Syria. According to the UN, it received “a negative response” from the militants.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, his US counterpart John Kerry and foreign ministers from regional powers mulled the Syrian quagmire and potential ways out of it on Saturday. However, the talks did not result in a breakthrough, with officials merely noting a joint commitment to preserve Syria as an “integral, independent and secular state.”
Lavrov stressed that in order for a real cessation of hostilities to come into effect in Syria, and Aleppo in particular, the US-backed “moderate rebels” should distance themselves from Al-Nusra terrorists, which is necessary as part of the Russia-US deal on Syria signed in Geneva on September 9. However, Moscow repeatedly stressed that the US “failed” to stick to its promise and pressure the opposition into distancing itself from Al-Nusra