Commander Mahmoud Barkhadan of the main Syria Kurdish militia People’s Protection Units told AP there were no airstrikes Friday but artillery and rockets fell on their areas in northern Aleppo province.
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“Turkey will have a role ultimately in the collapse of Raqa and then as a party in the region will have an interest in making sure that the governance of Raqa is one that is reflective of the population there”, he said in Abu Dhabi.
He said the fighters “with threats, blackmail and brute force, are obstructing the departure of peaceful civilians from east Aleppo”, as well as that of combatants who are prepared to leave.
Hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed or injured in Russian and Syrian airstrikes since September 19, when Assad regime announced the end of a week-long truce.
The head of the UN’s humanitarian task force for Syria, Jan Egeland, said on Thursday that the agency was confident of securing “green lights” from the Syrian government, Russian Federation and rebel groups to go ahead with medical evacuations.
He said these violations constitute “war crimes”, and “if knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilians, they constitute crimes against humanity”.
Save the Children called Friday for an end to the reported use of cluster munitions in Aleppo, saying they posed a particular danger to children.
All armed groups in Aleppo subordinated to al-Nusra, Moscow has handed over their list at Lausanne meeting, Lavrov said. The Russian and Syrian militaries stopped fire to let civilians and gunmen leave the city.
British ambassador Julian Braithwaite retorted that Britain “is not supplying weapons to anyone in Syria”.
If successful, the plan would then see aid delivered for another two days alongside continuing evacuations.
“This is an astronomically hard operation”, he added.
Labor minister Aleksandar Vulin said on Friday that “humanitarian issues are often viewed as if other intentions and motives are behind them”.
Heavy clashes took place in Aleppo during the night, outside the 11-hour periods during which the ceasefire is in place, Zakaria Malahifji, a rebel official with the Fastaqim group which is present in the city, said.
“If there are new massacres, bombing, we’ll need to start by sanctioning the Syrians who are responsible; if it continues bombing, Russian Federation will also expose itself to a response from the European Union, but we’re not there yet”, he added.
“Both Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, along with other organisations cooperating with them, are ultimately sabotaging United Nations efforts to restore the delivery of humanitarian assistance to eastern Aleppo, with our support, with the support of the Syrian government”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “There are still gaps.”Russia, which a year ago intervened militarily in the civil war to bolster Assad, is mainly concerned with going after militants from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front”.
While the Russian and Syrian airstrikes on Aleppo continue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today (Friday) that the entire world needs to take action in order to end the “barbaric” situation in the city.
Rebels in east Aleppo rejected the truce on the grounds claiming the pause was an act of psychological warfare, meant to trick the opposition fighters into surrendering. Residents have said they fear being arrested by government forces if they evacuate.
A United Nations official, however, told The Associated Press that Syrian opposition fighters were blocking medical evacuations because the government and Russian Federation were impeding deliveries of medical and humanitarian supplies into the city.
“We can not begin safe, secure and voluntary evacuation of the sick and critically wounded and families”, Jens Laerke, UN deputy spokesman for humanitarian affairs, told reporters at a briefing Friday in Geneva. He spoke to reporters in Geneva.
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Some 500 civilians have been killed in Aleppo since Russian Federation and Syria launched a renewed offensive in late September to retake control of the rebel-held eastern part of the city, where an estimated 250,000 are trapped and unable to meet basic health and food needs.
