Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Aleppo (Agenzia Fides) - The civilian population of Aleppo pay the highest price of the clashes that inflame the city. Over the past three days, more than 150 mortar shells have hit residential areas killing 15 people and injuring more than 75. Local sources of Fides report that a bomb fell on a shop that sells bread in the neighborhood of Sulaimaniyeh. Among the people who were in line to get bread, a person was killed and eight were wounded, including two children.
The local Christian community reports to Fides that among the victims of the bombings are two Christian children. One died, Georgio Rabbat, 13 years old, the only son of a Syrian Catholic family. He was a bright boy, he liked to study and dreamed of having the highest score in his exams to get into college. He was playing in the street with other children in the neighborhood where the Syriac community lives, when a mortar shell exploded nearby and hit him. Another girl called Pamela Dekermanji, four years old comes from a Syriac Orthodox Christian family: she was hit by shrapnel to the head and is in critical condition.
There have been no vegetables, fruit, meat for about ten days in Aleppo and even bread is scarce. The population eats rice and cereals. The reason is the embargo imposed by the rebels that is strangling the city and having a severe impact on the civilian population. According to Fides sources, if the blockade continues, "a humanitarian crisis is at risk". Civilians are also "collateral" victims of the crossfire affecting residential areas. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/07/2013)
