ALEPPO: Terrified residents fled a new wave of air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria’s divided city of Aleppo on Saturday, as key regime backer Russia rejected calls to rein in its ally.

Aleppo was left out of a new temporary US-Russian brokered truce that appeared to be holding in the regime stronghold of Latakia as well as Damascus and the nearby rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta.

In Aleppo’s rebel-held east, dozens of civilians left the battered district of Bustan al-Qasr early on Saturday.

“The situation has become unbearable,” Abu Mohammed said as he prepared to flee with his wife and five children.

“One of my kids is terrified by the bombing and no one has been buying anything from my shop for a week,” said the household appliance salesman.

“Everything is paralysed.” Russia said that it would not ask Damascus to halt air raids on Aleppo.

“No, we are not going to put pressure on (Damascus) because one must understand that the situation in Aleppo is part of this fight against the terrorist threat,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.

Once Syria’s economic hub, Aleppo and its surrounding countryside have suffered some of the worst fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, a total of four medical facilities were hit in Aleppo on Friday on both sides of the front line.

“There can be no justification for these appalling acts of violence deliberately targeting hospitals and clinics,” said Marianne Gasser, head of the ICRC in Syria.

“People keep dying in these attacks. There is no safe place anymore in Aleppo. Even in hospitals,” she said.

It was the second time this week that an air strike hit one of the few medical facilities still operating in rebel areas.

A raid on Wednesday hit Al Quds hospital and nearby flats, killing 30 people in an attack UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned as “inexcusable”.

Doctor Mohammad Wassim Maaz, known as the most qualified paediatrician in eastern Aleppo, was among the dead at the hospital, which was supported by MSF and the ICRC.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2016