Washington denounces the regime’s strikes and calls on Russia to use its influence on Damascus

The US State Department said that the air strikes carried out by the Syrian regime on a hospital in Aleppo is “reprehensible” and called on Russia to use its influence to put pressure on Bashar Al-Assad’s government to stop the attacks.

The Spokesman for the US State Department John Kirby said that the attack bore the features of attacks made by regime forces on medical facilities and emergency workers in the past. He added that the cessation of hostilities in Syria is at risk because of persistent violations.

The Al-Quds Hospital massacre in Aleppo and the subsequent intensification of indiscriminate shelling of the city yesterday authenticate the announcement made by the pro-Syrian Al-Watan newspaper that regime forces are braced for a “final battle” that will not take long.

Meanwhile, the opposition described what is happening in the city as “genocide” because “battle should be between two equally equipped parties and not against peaceful civilians”. According to what Abdul Jabbar Al-Oqaidi told Asharq Al-Awsat, what is taking place in Aleppo proves beyond doubt that the ceasefire has been broken. Al-Oqaidi is a commander of and spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo and a former colonel in the Syrian Arab Army.

Al-Oqaidi confirmed that the death toll of those killed in the Al-Quds Hospital massacre on Thursday night has reached 52 people. All of the dead were civilians and amongst them was the last paediatrician in the liberated areas of Aleppo, Dr Mohammed Waseem Maaz who was 35 years old.