Russia claims US planes bombed Syria’s Aleppo, as humanitarian crisis grips the city
Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday accused the United States of bombing the Syrian city of Aleppo after the Pentagon said Moscow’s air strikes had destroyed two hospitals in the city.
Moscow furiously denied the US claim, charging in return that Washington had sent ground-attack planes to bombard Aleppo.
“Just before 2 pm Moscow time (1100 GMT on Wednesday), two US Air Force A-10s flew into Syrian airspace from Turkish territory,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
After reaching Aleppo by the most direct route, the US planes “conducted strikes against targets in the city,” Konashenkov claimed.
The Pentagon on Wednesday said that Aleppo’s two main hospitals have been destroyed by Russian and Syrian government attacks this month in the Russian-backed regime offensive, warning of an “increasingly dire” situation in the city.
READ MORE: New humanitarian crisis developing on Turkish border as thousands of Syrians flee Aleppo in face of regime’s Russian-backed advance
Russia’s defence ministry said Thursday that its air force had hit 1,888 “terrorist targets” in eight regions including Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Homs provinces over the past week.