MESOP FOCUS : Russia-Regime Continue Bombing Despite Talks (ALEPPO/GUERNICA)

By Scott Lucas – eaworldview – 17 Oct 2016 – Despite the resumption of international talks over Syria’s crisis, Russia and the Assad regime are continuing their bombing of civilians in and beyond Aleppo.

Russian warplanes reportedly knocked out yet another medical facility, this time in Latamneh in northern Hama Province, and pro-Assad airstrikes targeted Aleppo districts such as al-Qaterji and Sheikh Fares on Sunday.The Local Coordination Committees documented 51 deaths in Aleppo Province yesterday, most of them from the Russian-regime airstrikes.

Since a renewal of bombing on September 19, beginning with the destruction of a UN aid convoy, the attacks have killed more than 600 civilians.Russia has defied international calls to cease the bombing, vetoing a UN Security Council resolution nine days ago. France has said that Moscow is complicit in the regime’s “war crimes”, comparing the attacks to the destruction of Spain’s Guernica by German bombers in 1937.

The US said earlier this month that it would suspend contacts with Moscow because of the airstrikes. However, Washington convened a multilateral conference, which included the Russians, in Lausanne, Switzerland.There was no advance in the discussions, but Russia used the event to relieve political pressure. Its shifting of emphasis to “separation” of rebels from the jihadists of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) — who in fact have few fighters in Aleppo — was supported by Iran, the Assad regime’s other main ally, and by Turkey, which has been a leading backer of the Syrian opposition and rebel factions.www.mesop.de