Russian Federation and the Syrian government will open humanitarian corridors in Syria’s embattled city of Aleppo and offer a way out for opposition fighters wanting to lay down their arms, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Thursday, July 28, 2016.
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Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, from Aleppo’s Syria Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue organization that operates in opposition-held Syria, said that to his knowledge the three corridors were not yet open.
Medical posts and food handouts would be provided along the routes intended for civilians and fighters who surrender, Shoigu said.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war broke out in 2011, has been a major battleground in conflict, with rebel groups holding neighborhoods in the east of the city for years.
Aleppo is divided between rebel forces and troops loyal to the government.
“In Aleppo, the situation is extremely serious, no doubt”, de Mistura said.
Earlier in the day, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow and Damascus had launched a joint large-scale humanitarian relief operation in Aleppo, establishing three corridors for civilians and one for militants wishing to lay down arms, and said that Moscow offered the worldwide organizations working in Syria to join this operation. The encirclement set the stage for a prolonged siege that the government hopes will eventually starve out and force the rebels to surrender, a tactic Assad’s forces have used elsewhere, including in the central city of Homs.
“The city is de facto besieged because it is nearly militarily completely encircled”.
Syrian President Bashar Assad secretly visited Russian President Valdimar Putin in Moscow, just days before the latter met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June, Lebanese newspaper Al-Joumhouria reported Thursday.
The government completely closed the main road into the rebel-held areas on July 17, effectively besieging them and 300,000 residents.
The governor of Syria’s Aleppo province says on state TV that three crossings have opened for residents of the besieged parts of the city of Aleppo.
“Everyone carrying arms.and sought by justice.is excluded from full punishment if they hand themselves in and lay down their weapons”, SANA announced.
The announcement came a week after US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they had agreed on “concrete steps” to save a failing Syria truce and tackle jihadist groups like al-Nusra and the Islamic State group.
O’Brien said 48-hour “humanitarian pauses” to deliver relief across the front lines, as sought by the United Nations, were necessary to alleviate the situation.
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But fighting had continued in other parts of the city, with eight “terrorist attacks” on Syrian government positions in the past two weeks. The offer is largely seen by opposition fighters as a publicity stunt and psychological warfare against the rebels.
