“That’s our job”, said Staffan de Mistura as he explained his “suggestion” to Moscow at a press conference in Geneva, a day after Russian Federation said its forces and those of the Syrian government would open humanitarian corridors around Aleppo and offer a way-out for civilians and surrendering fighters.
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It also showed a handful of young men, who were surrendering to government forces.
The civilians were “besieged by the terrorist groups in the eastern neighborhoods” and crossed into the Salahaddin section of the city, where Syrian army units sent them to makeshift shelters, the news agency reported.
Syrian state TV said government warplanes carried out an airstrike in the same area, also claiming a senior Islamist militant had been killed without naming him.
Russia’s defence ministry said that 169 civilians had left since Thursday through three safety crossings.
But on the ground, residents and an AFP correspondent said there was no sign of movement, adding that makeshift berms were still in place across the road from rebel to regime territory in Salaheddin.
Syrian state television accused the rebels of preventing civilians from leaving, which rebels deny.
Analysts say that the rebels losing Aleppo would be a major blow to the opposition and signal a turning point in the conflict, which began in 2011 with the brutal crackdown of anti-government protests.
It has been roughly divided into a regime-controlled west and a rebel-held east since July 2012. He charged that USA officials themselves are “playing some political game” rather than helping to end Aleppo’s food shortages and humanitarian crisis.
“Aleppo residents are in distress and mistrustful, which is understandable, as the Syrian tragedy has shown that even humanitarianism is often used as a cynical ploy to advance geopolitical interests”.
A US-led coalition is conducting an aerial campaign against the Islamic State group, which despite battlefield losses still controls areas of north and northeastern Syria.
And the White House said it was “sceptical”.
“Imagine the emergency room in any of the field hospitals doesn’t have more than five or six beds, and when responding to a massacre they receive up to 30-40 injured at the same time”, the doctor said in a statement released by the aid group.
“The humanitarian situation is more and more desperate and it’s hard to find food”, he added.
The UN voiced support for the humanitarian corridors, but UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura urged that the worldwide body take charge of the passages. Observatory chief Rami Adurrahman said another 13 people were killed in the strikes but that he could not say if they were ISIS fighters or civilians.
Syrian government forces on Thursday seized a neighbourhood on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, further tightening their siege on rebel areas of the city.
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“Armed fugitives hiding from justice shall be exempt from liability if they surrender and hand over their weapons to the competent judicial authorities or the police within three months from the date of this decree’s publication.”
