Syria conflict: Obama 'deeply concerned' about Aleppo

Food is becoming increasingly hard to find in Aleppo, three weeks into the government's siege

US President Barack Obama has expressed "deep concern" about the situation in rebel-held parts of Aleppo, amid an assault by Syrian government forces.

Medics in the city are struggling to cope with the huge number of casualties caused by the most sustained and intense aerial bombardment in years. Supplies of medicine and blood are running low, as a three-week siege by the army begins to have an impact.

An air strike on a pumping station has also left many areas without water. "The planes are not leaving the skies at all," Brita Hagi Hassan, president of the rebel city council, told Reuters news agency. "Life in the city is paralysed."


"Everyone is cooped up in their homes, sitting in the basements. These missiles are even targeting the basements and shelters that we'd set up to protect people."

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Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and the country's commercial and industrial hub, has been divided roughly in two since 2012, with President Bashar al-Assad's forces controlling the west and rebel factions the east.

In the past year, troops have gradually broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes. Earlier this month, they severed the rebels' last route into the east and placed its 250,000 residents under siege.