Sir, – I travelled to Damascus earlier this year and sat with families as bombs exploded in the distance. They didn’t even flinch at the explosions. That is what happens when you have been trapped in a war for almost six years.
The violence in Aleppo this week has stunned everybody, however.
A staff member of one of our partner organisations in Aleppo was among those killed on Tuesday. His colleague sent us this message: “Bodies are all over the streets. Parents had to leave their killed children in the streets.” He described it as “an apocalypse”.
The world’s international and regional superpowers are all involved in this conflict and yet nobody – not Russia, not the EU, not America, nor the Syrian government itself – could save the innocent people trapped in Aleppo. We are witnessing one of the worst massacres since the second World War, yet political leaders remain silent.
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In October the United Nations Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, warned that Aleppo would be completely destroyed by Christmas. How utterly shameful that his warning is being allowed come to pass. – Yours, etc,
NIALL O’KEEFFE,
Middle East Unit,
Trócaire,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – The battle for Aleppo is at an end, and the prize for the winners is a large heap of rubble and hundreds of thousands of dislocated human beings. Perhaps the Russian taxpayers will be kind enough to rebuild the city. Let us wait and see. – Yours, etc,
G CLARKE,
Navan,
Co Meath.