AMMAN – Syrian warplanes bombed a residential district of Aleppo Sunday after rebels overran army barracks there, killing and wounding dozens of people and exacerbating a water shortage in Syria's biggest city after a pipeline burst, activists said. President Bashar Al-Assad has resorted increasingly to devastating aerial bombardment to keep rebels fighting to overthrow him in check after they took control of residential neighborhoods and made forays into the centre of Aleppo, Syria's commercial and industrial capital. The almost 18-month-old uprising has polarized global powers, preventing effective international intervention, and is turning increasingly sectarian with the risk of spillover into adjacent Arab states with similar communal divisions. Insurgent advances have forced Assad to deploy warplanes, major armored forces and thousands of troops to prevent the fall of Aleppo, which would free up supply lines to the interior of Syria from Turkey where rebels have sheltered. Decisive victory has eluded both sides, with rebels lacking heavy weapons needed to down aircraft and knock out artillery and Assad loath to send conscript troops of questionable loyalty into cities to re-establish dominance on the ground. Instead, government forces have been bombarding population centers to try to turn residents against rebels dug in there, according to diplomats following the revolt. Sunday's air raid destroyed a residential complex in the Hananu neighborhood, one of several in eastern Aleppo under rebel control, opposition activists told Reuters by phone. The death toll was not immediately clear but dozens of bodies and wounded people were being dug out from the rubble. Video footage from the area showed scores of people searching and digging in the debris of a flattened building. On-scene details could not be independently verified due to Syria's severe restrictions on international media access. Aerial bombardment had also wrecked a main water pipeline, causing serious shortages of water in Aleppo, activists added. “A water pumping station in Al-Mayadeen was hit. There were rebels in the area, but this is not a justification to bomb civilian infrastructure," activist Ahmad Saeed said. — Reuters
