Reports from the northern Syrian town of Aleppo indicate that for at least 11 days, al Qaeda backed rebel forces have been laying siege to the city with on-going shelling.
Mainstream media has reported on the “barrel bombs” dropped via helicopter by the Syrian government over the area. What media has not reported on is the shelling via mortars being conducted by al Qaeda. Twitter pictures from the city show the kind of aftermath of the battle for Aleppo.
The aftermath of rebels' shelling last night in Nile street #Aleppo #Syria. #SaveAleppo pic.twitter.com/HMN0tp8RKM
— Dylan (@ProSyriana) April 24, 2014
Meanwhile, beyond the shelling of the city, the so called rebel forces have taken out Aleppos power gird. The city has been without power for 14 days. In addition, water is no longer flowing in the city and that has been the case for 11 days.
Death toll from yesterday's rebel shelling of West Aleppo is 44 dead & 87 wounded as city is without power or water for 11 days now #Syria
— Edward Dark (@edwardedark) April 28, 2014
Rebels have cut of Aleppo’s water supply for the 11th days as they have continued shelling the city. However while condemning the Syrian governments siege tactics, Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth and Amnesty international’s Kristian Benedict remain tight lipped about the rebels cutting off something as critical as water to a majority civilian population.