Women And Children Among 45 People Killed In Aleppo

MEP: An artillery assault has killed more than 45 people in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Most of the dead were women and children, it added.

At least 50,000 people had also been displaced by the fighting.

Meanwhile, the Civil Defense said in a message posted on its Telegram account that dozens more people had been wounded in the artillery attack it said had hit people displaced from eastern Aleppo.

The Observatory’s toll of 50,000 displaced was more than double a figure of 20,000 given by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said in a statement in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that thousands more were likely to flee if the fighting continued to intensify in the coming days.

The Syrian army has recently advanced deep inside the longtime militant stronghold of eastern Aleppo, taking control of key neighborhoods.

Russia has been offering military support to the Syrian government.

On Monday alone, Syrian troops seized full control of al-Sakhour district in eastern Aleppo in what has been billed as “the biggest defeat” for the terrorists in the city since 2012.