�鶹APP

: do ALL you can to keep Syria�鶹APP�s children safe.
This is what they�鶹APP�re living through, right now.
�鶹APP� Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk)

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By Agence France-Presse

Bunker-busting bombs are putting children in so much danger in Syria�鶹APP�s Aleppo that they won�鶹APP�t even be able to return to underground schools when classes resume this weekend, a charity said today.

The �鶹APP�ferocious assault�鶹APP� on Aleppo could deprive almost 100,000 school-age children of an education, said Save the Children, which supports 13 schools in the northern battleground city, including eight underground.

The United States has accused Russia of using �鶹APP�incendiary bunker-busting bombs�鶹APP� in a week-long aerial assault on the city�鶹APP�s rebel-held east in support of Syria�鶹APP�s President Bashar al-Assad.

The Kremlin said yesterday it would press on with its bombing campaign, blaming the surge in violence on Washington�鶹APP�s failure to control rebels in Aleppo and insisting Syrian forces were battling �鶹APP�terrorists�鶹APP�.

Save the Children said the use of the �鶹APP�earthquake bombs�鶹APP� which burrow four to five metres (yards) into the ground before exploding meant even underground schools were unsafe.

�鶹APP�Schools in eastern Aleppo were due to re-open for the new school year tomorrow �鶹APP� but as the city continues to suffer a ferocious assault they will remain closed, depriving almost 100,000 school-age children of an education, while they continue in fear for their lives,�鶹APP� it said in a statement.

The bunker-busting bombs are used to penetrate hardened targets such as underground military headquarters, leaving victims entombed in rubble.

Rescuers search in the rubble for survivors of a bombing in Aleppo

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�鶹APP�Parents are afraid to send their children to school because everything is targeted,�鶹APP� said a school principal in eastern Aleppo only identified as Omar.

�鶹APP�The students are also suffering on all levels, you see them barely walking, dragging themselves, which makes them unable to focus on the learning and studying,�鶹APP� Save the Children quoted him as saying.

�鶹APP�Regarding the bunker buster bombs, of course only hearing the sound creates a state of terror and panic that is not like anything else.

�鶹APP�The immense power of destruction is the most important, it can destroy underground shelters and basements and the buildings get totally destroyed, not just partially.�鶹APP�

Save the Children said more than 300 children have been killed or wounded in eastern Aleppo in the past five days.

�鶹APP�We are not going to school because the airplanes bomb any gathering,�鶹APP� said 12-year-old Amjad.

�鶹APP�When the plane comes we sit on the floor, afraid that things might fall above us. One of my friends died in the bombing �鶹APP� he was my best friend.

�鶹APP�I study in a cave�鶹APP�: Going to school in Syria
�鶹APP� Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia)

�鶹APP�I love to go to school to study and I wish I could become a civil engineer to rebuild the houses that were destroyed,�鶹APP� he said, quoted by the charity.

Even before the latest escalation, school enrolments in Aleppo had fallen to as low as 6%, said Save the Children.

�鶹APP�We�鶹APP�re now more likely to see children being pulled from the rubble or treated on the floor of a hospital than sat at a school desk,�鶹APP� said Nick Finney, Save the Children head for northwest Syria.

�鶹APP�Children deserve the right to play, to learn, to be children.

�鶹APP�The use of bunker busting bombs means there is literally nowhere we can keep children safe, and we want to see the use of these weapons investigated as a potential war crime.�鶹APP�

© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse

World leaders promised in February to come up with the funding needed to get one million Syrian refugee children into school in neighbouring countries �鶹APP� and to help children within Syria get an education.

There has been progress but not enough. on the international community to deliver education and hope to Syrian children.