Syrian President Bashar Assad told Swiss TV on Wednesday that massive Syrian-Russian bombing of eastern Aleppo was aimed at “protecting” Syrian citizens.

Shown a photograph of a bloodied and traumatized Syrian boy being rescued from rubble and told by the interviewer “you have the power to change the situation, also for children in Aleppo,” Assad said, “Our mission, according to the Constitution, according to the law, is that we have to protect the people, that we have to get rid of those terrorists from Aleppo.”

“This is where we can protect the civilians. How can you protect them while they are under the control of the terrorists? They’ve been killed by them and they’ve been controlled fully by the terrorists. Is this our role, to sit aside and watch? Is that how we can protect the Syrian people? We need to attack the terrorists, that’s self-evident,” Assad told SRF, the Swiss broadcasting company.

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Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city and its commercial hub, has been subjected to intense aerial bombardment since the start of the battle between Assad’s forces and anti-government rebels in 2011.

In recent months, the Syrian army has pressed its offensive into the rebel-held eastern part of the city. Air raids have killed hundreds and caused international outrage.

A Russia-US-brokered ceasefire collapsed last month as the Syrian army launched an offensive on eastern Aleppo under the cover of Russian warplanes.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights calculated that 740 civilians, including 145 children aged under 18, have been killed in Aleppo province since the collapse of the truce on September 19.

On Tuesday, airstrikes on Aleppo were temporarily halted to allow Syrian rebels as well as the sick and wounded to leave the eastern parts of the city.

Accusing the Syrian army of attacking schools, residential buildings, hospitals and medical facilities and the civilian population directly, Amnesty International said last month that the Syrian government and its Russian ally had the freedom to “attack civilians with impunity and leave only one option for Aleppo residents to escape the horror – forcing them to evacuate to government-controlled areas. Once the city is emptied of people, the government can seize control and claim victory.”