ICC Note: In the past three weeks, Aleppo Christians have experienced the worst of the Syrian Civil War. Reports of over 200 Christian deaths have emerged from the city after airstrikes and rockets battered the once affluent city for weeks. In one bombing, Dabbit Hospital, which only treated women and children was destroyed, leaving only 16 of the 134 hospitals in Aleppo functioning. The attacks were carried out primarily in Christian areas of the city. It is still partially unclear as to who is responsible.

05/10/2016 Syria (BosNewsLife): Christian aid workers have urged prayers after up to 200 Christians were reportedly killed in sustained bombardments of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, as the country’s civil war entered its sixth year.

“Lift up in prayer the Christian community of Aleppo and all innocent civilians in the city following a sustained period of bombardment, which mainly targeted the Christian area,” explained aid group Barnabas Fund in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.

The group said between April 22 and April 30 some 1,350 rockets hit the Christian area, killing 132 people, half of them women and children. A further 65 were killed last week, May 3, with hundreds more injured, according to aid workers.

“Of the 65 killed on May 3, an estimated 35 died when Dabbit Hospital, which treated only women and children, was destroyed by a rocket explosion,” Barnabas Fund said. “Two patients died whilst on the operating table. Another hospital in the government area was damaged in part and has now been closed down.”

After the destruction of these two hospitals, only 16 of the 134 hospitals in the Aleppo area still function, said Christians familiar with the situation.

Many of the strikes have been carried out in the opposition-held area in east Aleppo by Syrian state or Russian forces. However Barnabas Fund also linked Islamic Rebel groups to attacks. They had reportedly issued a direct threat against Aleppo’s large community of Armenian Christians on 22 April, warning, “We will show the Armenians and the Christians who we are…We have been ordered not to leave any Armenians in the area.”

Barnabas Fund quoted one Christian eyewitness as saying that “Mortars and rockets are like rain.”

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