Dozens of Airstrikes Pound Aleppo, At Least 85 Reported Killed

Heavy airstrikes that began in earnest on Friday continued into Sunday evening in the north Syrian city of Aleppo, with dozens of additional strikes against the Nusra Front-held eastern half of the city reported, overwhelming hospitals with more casualties.

Accurate figures are often difficult to obtain from the area, but the Western-backed Aleppo Media Center, bankrolled by French and US governments, reported at least 85 more people killed on Sunday, and 300 more wounded, putting the death toll over the three day period to around 200.

The airstrikes are adding to an already shaky humanitarian situation in Aleppo, with reports on Saturday that water to the entire metro area of Aleppo was knocked out by damage around a pumping station in the rebel areas. The repairs weren’t completed, by all accounts, but the water was again flowing within a few hours.

In addition to shortages in supplies, doctors are in increasingly short supply in the Nusra areas, with only about 30 left according to some accounts. With hundreds of wounded coming in seemingly by the day, the hospitals are short-staffed and overrun.

Syrian officials say their goal is an outright ground invasion of eastern Aleppo, though there is as yet no indication when that will begin. No single faction has held the entire city of Aleppo since 2012, though it is so heavily damaged at this point it is unclear how valuable it would be.