United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday (September 28) that those using more destructive weapons in Syria are committing war crimes and that the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo is worse than a slaughterhouse.
“Imagine the destruction - people with limbs blown off, children in terrible pain with no relief, infected, suffering, dying, with nowhere to go, and no end in sight. Imagine a slaughterhouse. This is worse. Even a slaughterhouse is more humane” Ban told a U.N. Security Council meeting on healthcare in armed conflict.
Russian or Syrian warplanes knocked a major Aleppo hospital out of service on Wednesday, hospital workers said, and ground forces intensified an assault on the city's besieged rebel sector, in a battle that has become a potentially decisive turning point in the civil war.
Shelling damaged at least another hospital and a bakery, killing six residents queuing up for bread under a siege that has trapped 250,000 people with food running out.
The World Health Organization said it had reports that both hospitals were now out of service.
The week-old assault has already killed hundreds of people, with bunker-busting bombs bringing down buildings on residents huddled inside. Only about 30 doctors are believed to be left inside the besieged zone, coping with hundreds of wounded a day.