\n Moscow on Monday insisted its bombing campaign in Syria was \"highly effective\", denying its jets struck hospitals as a brutal onslaught against rebel-held Aleppo has sparked accusations of war crimes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said Russia's air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime had stopped jihadists taking over the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"From this perspective our participation has been highly effective, especially now when the situation around Aleppo has worsened,\" he was quoted as saying by Russian wires.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow has been accused of indiscriminately bombing Aleppo's opposition-controlled east as it helps an offensive currently being conducted by Syrian government troops to capture all of the country's second city.\n<\/p>\n
\n The largest hospital in eastern Aleppo was bombed over the weekend for the second time in days as the UN's top aid official decried the \"living hell\" suffered by locals.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia has repeatedly denied that its strikes have hit hospitals and other civilian facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Accusations that Russia is allegedly bombing medical facilities, hospitals, schools are all baseless,\" Gatilov said.\n<\/p>\n
\n A short-lived truce brokered by Moscow and Washington earlier this month could have led the two countries to coordinate strikes against jihadists, but the deal quickly fell apart.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United Nations has warned that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Aleppo unlike any witnessed so far in Syria's brutal five-year war, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow said last week that it was continuing its year-long Syrian air campaign in spite of US warnings that Washington would suspend talks unless Moscow stopped its assault on Aleppo.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gatilov said Russia was working to agree with Washington on \"what needs to be done to renew the cessation of hostilities.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow on Monday insisted its bombing campaign in Syria was \"highly effective\", denying its jets struck hospitals as a brutal onslaught against rebel-held Aleppo has sparked accusations of war crimes. Deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said Russia's air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime had stopped jihadists taking over the country. \"From this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-29582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n