The fighting persisted Tuesday, with government forces seizing a rebel-held neighbourhood on the northwest outskirts of Aleppo, tightening their siege of the opposition-controlled parts of the city.
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The Syrian uprising started with largely unarmed protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but it quickly turned into a full-blown civil war that has since continued unabated. Pro-government forces have been steadily tightening a siege on rebels in the eastern part of the city since last week.
Syrian state television quoted the governor of Aleppo as saying three humanitarian corridors would be established for civilians to leave the city.
He said three corridors will be open for civilians and fighters who lay down their arms and a fourth corridor providing fighters a “safe exit with weapons”.
Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, has been a focal point of clashes between the Syrian Army and the rebels. Both have fighters in Aleppo.
Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been roughly divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV aired footage of government forces pushing in what appeared to be an industrial area near Aleppo.
There are no signs yet that residents have converged on the crossings.
“Definitely not. We will not surrender ourselves to the criminals. Slaughtering us, starving us, and besieging civilians”, he said, speaking from the city via Skype.
The dead included two women and a child, as well as a rebel commander who was killed with four members of his family, the monitor said. Also, he said there is clearly little confidence in the government’s amnesty offer.
The United Nations said a 48-truck convoy of worldwide aid organizations was heading to the besieged areas of Talbiseh in northern Homs province, carrying food aid for 40,000 people.
Marwan Kabalan, a research associate at the Doha Institute’s Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies, says Syrian government forces are trying to wear down opposition fighters in Aleppo.
“Everyone carrying arms. and sought by justice.is excluded from full punishment if they hand themselves in and lay down their weapons”, SANA said, quoting a presidential decree on the three-month amnesty offer.
Asked whether he intends to issue a general amnesty if the government wins the ongoing foreign-sponsored war on Syria, Assad said, “It is not about my victory”.
Many Western leaders are backing rebel groups in the brutal conflict because they want to weaken Syria, Assad claimed.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington and Moscow, which support opposing sides in Syria’s five-year-old conflict, had made progress in recent days towards working more closely together.
Shoigu said Putin, in response to a request by Kerry, ordered Gen. Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov and a group of experts to the Swiss city, which has hosted several rounds of Syrian talks and worldwide negotiators trying to resolve the crisis.
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Issa reported from Beirut.
