‘Those we save today die tomorrow’: Aleppo official

ALEPPO, Syria

Civilians are fleeing from one part of opposition-held eastern Aleppo to another amid a flurry of attacks by the Syrian regime, according to a local civil defense official.

"Those we save today are killed tomorrow," Ammar Assalmo, an Aleppo-based civil defense official, told Anadolu Agency.

After years of war, many districts of eastern Aleppo lack functioning communications infrastructure. Since the regime cut telephone lines, spotty internet connections are residents’ only link to the outside world.

"Residential buildings, infrastructure, hospitals and civil defense centers have been devastated by severe bombardments by the regime," Assalmo said.

"Russia and the regime have developed novel means of killing by leaving people without electricity and water," he added.

"The regime, Iran and Russia, however, aren’t the only ones to blame," he asserted. "The international community is also at fault for allowing it all to happen."

"Here the people are living between exile, starvation and death," Assalmo lamented.

For more than three months, eastern Aleppo has reeled under a crippling regime-imposed siege, while more than 750 civilians have been killed since mid-November in regime attacks on the city.

The stepped-up attacks come within the context of attempts by the Russia-backed Assad regime and its allies to wrest control of eastern parts of the city, four years after they were captured by armed opposition groups.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.

*Reporting by Selen Temizer; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat