BEIRUT – Residents of Syria’s second city Aleppo have been without water for a week because jihadists have cut supplies into rebel and regime-held areas, a monitoring group says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front had cut water supplies from a pump distributing to both the rebel-held east and government-held west of Aleppo.
Last month, opposition forces cut the electricity supply to regime-controlled areas of Aleppo and the surrounding countryside.
But Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the groups were unable to cut off water supplies to regime areas without also affecting rebel-held neighbourhoods, calling the move “a crime”.
Once home to five million residents and considered Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been divided between government and opposition control since shortly after fighting there began in mid-2012.
Around three million people have been displaced from the city since then by fighting and relentless regime aerial bombardments of rebel areas.
