Aleppo bears brunt of attacks

DAMASCUS: Fighting raged in several Syrian flashpoints yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six members of one family were killed in a dawn missile attack on the village of Abu Taltal in Aleppo province.
In a video released by activists, the bodies of the three children, a boy and two small girls, can be seen lying on blankets on a hospital bed.
The Observatory has previously reported more than 3,500 child deaths in Syria’s conflict.
The main opposition Syrian National Coalition, which has been recognized by dozens of states and organizations as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, said it has contacted rebel leaders in the area.
Yesterday’s violence came a day after at least 123 people were killed, among them 62 civilians including 15 children, said the Observatory. The UN says more than 60,000 people have died since the conflict first erupted in March 2011.
UN said yesterday that more than 650,000 people have already fled Syria to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to host an international conference in Moscow on the refugee crisis.
“If the interested nations agree to this, we will be ready to propose Moscow as the venue,” news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization meanwhile warned that Syrian agriculture has been shattered by the conflict, putting the livelihoods of about half of the country’s population at risk.
“Twenty-two months of conflict has left Syria’s agricultural sector in tatters with cereal, fruit and vegetable production dropping for some by half and massive destruction of irrigation and other infrastructure,” the organization said in a statement.
The UN says that about 80 percent of 10 million Syrians — about 46 percent of the population — derive their livelihoods from agriculture.
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized Syria’s opposition for its “obsession” with toppling Assad, and warned of a long conflict.
“For now, everything is running up against the opposition’s obsession with toppling Bashar Assad’s regime,” Lavrov told reporters.
“As long as this irreconcilable position remains in place, nothing good can happen. Armed actions will continue and people will die.” He said that the opposition’s insistence on ousting Assad was stymying efforts to find a diplomatic solution backed by the former international peace envoy Kofi Annan and his successor Lakhdar Brahimi.