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Humanitarian Atrocity in Syria as Possibly Hundreds of Aleppo Civilians Murdered in Siege: VIDEO

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Aleppo
Abdulkafi alhamdo, a teacher turned activist.

A human rights atrocity is underway in Aleppo, where pro-government forces have been going door to door, killing civilians as they go.

Some reports say the deaths of young men, women, and children — some while fleeing, some in their homes, some by suicide, and others burned alive — number in the hundreds.

NBC News reports:

Dozens of civilians were killed by Syrian forces in “a complete meltdown of humanity” during the final battle for Aleppo, the U.N. said Tuesday amid separate reports that women and children were burned alive while some families chose suicide over surrender.

The U.N. human rights office said it received reports of pro-government forces killing at least 82 people as they tightened their grip on the shrinking rebel districts in the east of the city.

Rupert Colville, spokesman of the U.N. human rights office, said he feared retribution against thousands of civilians holed up in a “hellish corner” smaller than one square mile.

The NYT adds:

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, warned that the blood bath in Aleppo, a once-thriving northern metropolis that is close to falling under the government’s complete controlafter more than four years of fighting, could spread to other cities where rebels are active.

“What is happening with Aleppo could repeat itself in Douma, in Raqqa, in Idlib,” he said on Tuesday. “We cannot let this continue.”

Also on Tuesday, the French government said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of a chemical attack in the eastern suburbs of the city of Hama a day earlier.

Children are trapped in buildings:

Children are reportedly trapped inside a building under attack in besieged Aleppo, the UN’s children agency has said, amid reports that forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad are carrying out extrajudicial killings in areas of the city recently reclaimed from the Syrian opposition.

“According to alarming reports from a doctor in the city, many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo,” Unicef said in a statement. “We urge all parties to the conflict to allow the safe and immediate evacuation of all children.”

Civilians under siege took to social media, posting last messages to various networks.

Mashable writes: “Among them is Bana Alabed, a 7-year-old girl who in the past months, with the help of her mother Fatemah, has documented with the handle @AlabedBana the grim situation in the besieged Syrian city:”

Mashable adds:

Trapped activists posted farewell messages on social media, saying they were “waiting for death or captivity” while others fled to government-held areas. As the frontlines quickly shifted, thousands carried what possessions they could, some pushing relatives in wheelchairs, before a heavy overnight rainstorm.

Celebrations on the government-held side of the divided city lasted long into the night, with a Reuters witness describing bullets dropping “like rainfall” as fighters shot into the air in triumph.

The Red Cross on Tuesday warned of a “deepening humanitarian catastrophe” and said further loss of life “can be averted only if the basic rules of warfare – and of humanity – are applied.”

It said in a statement: ” Thousands of civilians’ lives are in danger …. as the battle reaches new peaks and the area is plunged into chaos thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to run.”

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher turned activist:

And Lina Shamy:

And Bilal Abdul Kareem:

 

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