(The Guardian) – A heavy bombardment of rebel-held east Aleppo entered a second day on Friday, hours after the Syrian military announced a major new offensive against the city that ended all talk of restoring a US-Russian ceasefire and raised questions over whether the it had been a tactical ploy by the Assad regime and its Russian sponsors. Ammar al Selmo, the head of the civil defence rescue service in east Aleppo, told Reuters a fresh wave of bombing had started at 6am local time after heavy overnight attacks. “What’s happening now is annihilation,” he said.
