Rebel-held eastern Aleppo could be “totally destroyed” by year’s end if a campaign of ferocious bombardment of the Syrian city by Russia and Syria continues, a senior U.N. envoy warned on Thursday. The northern Syrian city has been pounded for two weeks by punishing airstrikes that have killed nearly 300 people, many of them children. That figure represented an apparent downward revision from the U.N.’s previous estimate of the number of fighters in eastern Aleppo tied to the Al Qaeda-linked faction. "The bottom line is in a maximum of two months, 2 ½ months, the city of eastern Aleppo at this rate may be totally destroyed,” the U.N. envoy said. “History will judge them” if the Aleppo offensive continues, De Mistura said of Russia and the Syrian regime.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 06, 2016 17:26 UTC