This is the second “humanitarian pause” announced by Russian Federation in Aleppo: The previous one ended in October after three days, with few evacuations.
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Foreign-backed militants, however, have ignored the gesture and used the pause to launch one of their most ferocious offensives last week in order to break an army siege in eastern Aleppo. Government forces, backed by Russian air power, besieged opposition-held parts of the city in July, trapping almost 275,000 people inside.
“Nothing can be done”.
Syrian government tanks fired on rebel fighters trying unsuccessfully to advance in the southwestern corner of Aleppo in a newly-built residential zone called “Assad City”. Last month, pauses expired with no resumption of airstrikes, which Russian Federation said it halted on the eastern side of the city. “As usual, when it ends they will let the bombardment loose”.
Rebel official says it is “completely out of the question” for them to withdraw from the divided city in northern Syria.
Once Syria’s industrial powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by some of the worst fighting in the country’s five-year war. Western Aleppo is home to more than 1 million residents, including people displaced from eastern Aleppo.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia had told rebels in Aleppo to leave by Friday evening, signalling it would extend a moratorium on air strikes against targets inside the city.
State media said at least 12 people were killed in rebel rocket and gunfire on Aleppo´s western neighbourhoods.
A military source, however, said the second wave of attacks on Thursday was foiled by the Syrian army and allied fighters.
“Nobody will leave and the Russians will escalate”. They were evacuated and their lives are not in danger, the statement said.
In recent months other opposition-held areas have surrendered after long army sieges.
But so far only a very small number of people have left the rebel-held zone since late October.
State media said at least 12 people had been killed in rebel rocket and gunfire on regime-controlled neighbourhoods, after an assault that began with a double vehicle bomb attack.
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Meanwhile, the United Nations said that it was unable to use Russia’s unilateral pause in the fighting in Aleppo to send aid into the city’s besieged eastern district because it did not have the necessary security guarantees, a UN spokesman said today. He added, however, that saving civilians is the main priority. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through local contacts, reported that rebels attacked government positions with two explosives-laden vehicles.
