http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/world/middleeast/aleppo-syria-civilians.html 2016-09-30 15:50:30 Week of Attacks in Eastern Aleppo Killed 338, W.H.O. Says Other reports say Russia has killed more than 3,000 civilians and displaced tens of thousands more in the first year of its bombing campaign in Syria. === GENEVA — The The number of wounded was put at 846, including 261 children, Rick Brennan, the W.H.O.’s director of emergency response, told reporters in Geneva. “We are asking for four things: stop the killing, stop attacks on health care, let the sick and wounded out, and let the aid in,” Mr. Brennan said, describing conditions in the city as “beyond unimaginable.” Russia has faced harsh criticism this week for the increasing brutality of its air campaign against rebels in eastern Aleppo. Western officials have accused Moscow and its Syrian allies of destroying an aid convoy and of targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly health care facilities, waterworks and bakeries. The American ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, has called it “ Russia has denied the accusations, but Secretary of State John Kerry has dismissed Moscow’s denials and this week Friday was the first anniversary of Moscow’s intervention in the Syrian civil war, an occasion that prompted a number of reports on civilian casualties in Russian airstrikes. The Britain’s special representative to Syria, Gareth Bayley, released a statement saying that Russia had killed at least 2,700 civilians and displaced tens of thousands more in a campaign that had “hit civilian areas and increasingly used indiscriminate weapons, including cluster and incendiary munitions.” As the human toll from the conflict has risen, the ability of the medical services in Aleppo to cope has shrunk because of damage inflicted in the ferocious assault unleashed on the eastern half of the city. Until a few days ago, eastern Aleppo had eight working hospitals, but its two biggest facilities came under attack this week and were no longer functioning, Mr. Brennan of the W.H.O. said. That has reduced the number of beds available, leaving doctors and nurses to treat patients in the corridors. Four children died of their wounds in the last few days, Mr. Brennan said, because of a shortage of spaces in intensive care units. The number of doctors working in eastern Aleppo has fallen to 30 from 35 just two days ago, he said. “These guys are exhausted, they are drained physically and emotionally,” he added. The United Nations has drawn up plans for evacuations and identified hospitals in northern Syria that could receive the wounded, including hospitals in the government-controlled western part of the city. But those plans have been held in abeyance because of the intense fighting, the absence of assurances of safe passage and the lack of a green light from the government. The United Nations has medicines and medical equipment in position and ready to move, Mr. Brennan added, but they cannot get into the city. “The message is simple,” he said. “We hope this time it doesn’t fall on deaf ears.”