More than 15,000 Syrian refugees fleeing fighting in northern Aleppo have gathered at the Turkish border, United Nations and Turkish officials said.
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Aleppo, once Syria’s thriving commercial center, has been carved up between government- and rebel-controlled districts since the summer of 2012.
“Local sources said that while the Turkish border remains closed to civilian movement, those requiring urgent medical care have been receiving treatment from local hospitals in Turkey”.
Tens of thousands of civilians have joined an exodus to escape fierce fighting involving government forces who severed the rebels’ main supply route into Syria’s second city.
“What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence”, said Maamoun al-Khatib, an activist and head of the Shabha press agency in Aleppo.
The Syrian regimes army and allied militias on Friday reported new gains against rebel factions in the northern Aleppo province and southern Daraa province.
The Russian bombing campaign, meanwhile, drew new criticism from the West, which has sharply criticized Moscow for its military support of Assad.
While the Kremlin says the airstrikes target positions held by the Daesh militant group, some members of the western North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance say Russian Federation is targeting moderate opposition groups opposed to Assad.
Intense Russian assault on one of the country’s most populous cities has in the last few days sent as many as 20,000 people to the border crossing, as President Bashar al-Assad’s troops close in on rebel-held territory.
Russian airstrikes have been seen as instrumental in achieving this. On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it has “reasonable grounds” to suspect Turkey of “intensive preparations” for sending troops into Syria. The Syrian refugee camps in the country accommodate about 300,000 people.
A civil war that has killed 250,000 people over five years and forced millions of others to flee their homes has confronted Europe with the rising threat of terrorism as well as a growing migrant crisis.
One of the most important trading cities in the Middle East, Aleppo has historically been a city to which people flocked when they were looking for work.
Increased Russian activity “creates risks and heightens tensions and is of course a challenge for Nato”, Mr Stoltenberg said.
The chief negotiator of the main opposition group said its delegation is unlikely to return to Geneva to take part in indirect peace talks because of Syria and Russia’s “arrogant” bombardment campaign.
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“Why did the opposition that left Geneva complain about the offensive in Aleppo, which is actually targeted against Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) and other radical extremist groups?” said Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Alexey Borodavkin.
