On Thursday, a Moscow said its forces and those of the Syrian government would open such passages outside the city and offer a way-out for fighters wanting to surrender.
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Russia, a key ally of President Bashar Al-Assad, on Thursday announced the opening of humanitarian passages for civilians and surrendering fighters seeking to exit the city’s rebel-held eastern neighborhoods.
But the United Nations has raised misgivings about the plan and U.S. officials have suggested it may be an attempt to depopulate the city – the most important opposition stronghold in the country – so the army can seize it.
The Russian defence ministry said 169 civilians had escaped, and 69 opposition fighters had laid down their weapons.
The United Nations says food will run out within weeks for the people trapped inside, and has been trying to negotiate regular pauses in the fighting to allow humanitarian access.
USA officials and Syrian rebel groups have suggested Russia’s and Syria’s creation on July 28 of so-called “safe corridors” where they have invited an estimated 250,000 civilians trapped amidst fighting to evacuate may be part of a plan to depopulate the city so that the Syrian army, which has surrounded and besieged the city, can seize it.
State television purportedly showed dozens of women and children, as well as around a dozen rebel fighters, arriving at government controlled areas.
Reports said “a number” of women over the age of 40 had left the rebel-held east and had been taken to shelters, but there were no exact figure for the number of people who evacuated.
Another said: “The ones who want to open humanitarian corridors must first have to care about humanity”.
The families are fleeing a city devastated by the relentless pounding by Russian and Syrian forces, which are trying to retake swaths of the east that have been in rebel hands for almost four years.
He also said that six temporary shelters had been set up to accommodate at least 3,000 people.
“In exchange, Russian Federation would prevail on its ally, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, to stop bombing moderate rebel groups and civilians”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said around 20 people had crossed from the east into the west, but insisted none were rebels.
“These corridors are not for getting aid in, but driving people out”, said Basma Kodmani of the opposition High Negotiations Committee.
“The brutal message to our people is: ‘leave or starve'”.
Two rebels and aid workers contacted in besieged Aleppo said the army had fired at civilians in one of the safe corridors, in the Salah al-Din district.
The Syrian government also reported that civilians were returning to the northern area of Bani Zeid, a day after Syrian government forces took control.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said Russian Federation, which has been carrying out air strikes alongside Syrian regime planes, should let the United Nations take charge of the corridors as a reassurance to the beleaguered population.
“I want to leave, but not to government-held areas”, said Abu Mohamed, a 50-year-old father of four living in Al-Shaar district. The UN and its humanitarian partners, as you know, know what to do.
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U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said it had “initiated an assessment following internal operational reporting that a strike today near Manbij, Syria may have resulted in civilian casualties”.
