A heavy bombardment of rebel-held east Aleppo entered a second day on Friday, hours after the Syrian military announced a major new offensive against the city that ended all talk of restoring a US-Russian ceasefire. Ammar al Selmo, the head of the civil defence rescue service in east Aleppo, told Reuters a fresh wave of bombing had started at 6am local time after heavy overnight attacks. The army declaration followed several days of bombing of eastern Aleppo with helicopter-borne barrel bombs and airstrikes from warplanes, which had intensified on Thursday. The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, denied his government was responsible for the repeated bombing of hospitals. “The planes have not left the city’s skies and the bombing is continuous and indiscriminate,” said one activist in eastern Aleppo.

Source: The Guardian September 22, 2016 20:57 UTC