Humanity dying in Aleppo, says Turkish Deputy PM

ANKARA

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has said that the "humanity" is dying in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo.

"The humanity is dying in Aleppo. The ones dying in Aleppo are not only our brothers but all of humanity is dying over there," Kurtulmus said during an interview with Al Jazeera tv channel in Arabic on Wednesday.

Kurtulmus criticized the international community, saying: "This is not an issue that can be watched and glossed over anymore. This issue should be dealt with very quickly."

He added that Turkey tries to fulfill all kind of responsibilities for Aleppo.

On Tuesday evening, regime forces and opposition groups agreed to a Turkey-brokered cease-fire deal with a view to evacuating civilians from the eastern part of the city.

According to an Anadolu Agency reporter, at around 10.30 a.m. local time Wednesday, regime forces bombed several residential areas in opposition-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo.

Violence has recently escalated in the city as Syrian regime forces advanced into opposition-held parts of eastern Aleppo on Monday following a five-month siege and persistent aerial bombardment.

The Russia-backed Bashar al-Assad regime had been trying to reestablish control over parts of Aleppo captured four years ago by armed opposition groups.

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

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