UN slams airstrike on water-treatment plant in N. Syria

GENEVA

The United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday condemned an airstrike on a water-treatment plant last week that has left some 3.5 million residents of the Syrian city of Aleppo without access to clean water.

Although the plant has since begun operating again, UNICEF has warned that some 1.4 million people in Aleppo continue to face frequent water supply interruptions.

"In Syria, the rules of war -- including those meant to protect vital civilian infrastructure -- continue to be broken on a daily basis," Hanaa Singer, UNICEF’s representative in Syria, said.

Although the source of last Thursday’s airstrike remains unclear, Russia -- a close ally of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- has been carrying out an extensive air campaign in northern Syria since Sept. 30.

According to Singer, damage sustained by the plant -- which before the airstrike had treated some 18 million liters of drinking water daily -- has left the Euphrates River as the only source of drinking water for some four million people across Aleppo province.

UNICEF has urged all parties of the Syria conflict to refrain from targeting civilian infrastructure -- including water facilities -- in line with international humanitarian law.

Russian airdrop

In a related development, Syrian local coordination committees on Wednesday said that a Russian cargo plane had airdropped five tons of light weaponry to the PYD, the terrorist PKK organization’s Syrian affiliate, in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud area.

Syria’s local coordination committees, which consist of local activists opposed to the Assad regime, frequently publish news via social-media websites.

Syria has been dogged by constant warfare since the Assad regime cracked down violently on anti-government protests that broke out in early 2011 as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed in fighting between the regime and its allies on one end and several heavily armed opposition groups on the other.