Syrian warplanes pound east of Aleppo as rebels squeezed
Russia seeks full rebel pullout
ALEPPO, Syria, Dec 3, (Agencies): Syrian warplanes, artillery and mortar rounds pounded areas in eastern Aleppo on Saturday drawing rebel rockets, as government troops gain new ground in the shrinking opposition-held enclave.
After four years of holding nearly half of the divided city, rebel fighters have been increasingly squeezed into the center of the eastern enclave. Government and allied troops, including Lebanese, Iraqi and Iranian fighters, have concentrated their fight on the northeastern part of the enclave, swiftly taking new districts since their offensive began last week. Another front on the southern outskirts of the city has been slower, as rebel fighters push back government advances there.
The advances have caused massive displacement. The UN estimated that more than 31,000 have already fled their homes, either to government or Kurdish areas, or deeper into the besieged enclave. The fighting has also intensified the rebel shelling of government-held areas in Aleppo.
The state broadcaster al-Ikhbariya said “precise operations” by government and allied troops aim to rout out “terrorists,” which is how the government refers to all armed opposition groups.
The sound of war prevailed in the city early Saturday. Warplanes made several runs overhead, drawing what appeared to be rebel machine gun fire toward the aircraft.
The Syrian Civil Defense in eastern Aleppo said six people were killed in bombings of the central al-Shaar neighborhood. Opposition news agency Thiqa also put the death toll at six. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at three, adding it was likely to rise. In government-held Aleppo, rebel shelling killed five people, according to the state news agency SANA.
To the south of the city, government cannons could be heard firing toward rebel-held areas.
Residents in eastern Aleppo also reported intense shelling in al-Sukkari neighborhood on the southern edge of the enclave, where many of the newly displaced have sought refuge.
“The noose is tightening quickly,” said Mohammed Abu Jaafar, a medical official in besieged eastern Aleppo. “Our resources are also running low and beginning to disappear.”
The bombings Saturday came hours after government troops made new advances on eastern parts of the enclave, including in Tariq al-Bab and al-Khaterji districts. State media reported that government and allied troops have moved in on new neighborhoods, pushing one kilometer (0.6 mile) deeper into the enclave from the far east.
The new advances tighten the govapproaches ernment’s grip on the enclave and reduce the territory the rebels hold by more than half, according to the Observatory.
The new advances also secure the airport road east of Aleppo, leading to the city’s international airport and a military airbase. The pan-Arab Mayadeen TV station said intense bombing in eastern Aleppo was designed to ensure rebels have been cleared from the airport road.
Meanwhile, Russia said on Saturday it was ready for talks with the United States about a withdrawal of all Syrian rebels from eastern Aleppo where advances by the Russian-backed Syrian army and its allies threaten to deal a crushing blow to the rebellion.
An official with an Aleppo rebel group accused Russia of backtracking on ideas agreed at talks in Turkey that would have led to a ceasefire, and said rebel commanders had vowed to fight on even as they face intense bombardment and ground assaults.
Russia has acknowledged contacts with the rebels but given no details of the talks in Turkey.
“I asked the factions, they said ‘we will not surrender’,” said Zakaria Malahifji, the head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim faction, speaking from Turkey.
But with the rebels under fierce assault in their shrinking enclave, the UN envoy for Syria suggested eastern Aleppo could fall to the government by the end of the year and hoped a “formula” could be found to avoid a “terrible battle”.
The government advances in Aleppo have brought President Bashar alAssad to the brink of his biggest victory yet in the war that grew out of protests against his rule in 2011.
Backed by the Russian air force and Shi’ite militias from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, the government has gradually closed in on eastern Aleppo this year. The latest phase of the attack has driven rebels from more than half the territory they held.
The United Nations estimates that close to 30,000 people have been displaced by the latest fighting, 18,000 of them leaving to government-held areas and a further 8,500 going to the Kurdish-controlled neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.
Tens of thousands of people are thought to be sheltering in the rebelheld east, where supplies of food and fuel are critically low and hospitals have been repeatedly bombed out of operation.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that reports on the war, said up to 200,000 people may still be in the rebel-held area. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said it could be more than 100,000 people.
Russia, which has assumed a pivotal role in Syria since it deployed its air force there 15 months ago, said the withdrawal of all rebels would “normalize life” in eastern Aleppo.
“We are immediately ready to send out military experts, diplomats to Geneva in order to agree mutual actions with our American colleagues to ensure the pullout of all the rebels without exclusion from eastern Aleppo,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
There was no immediate comment from the United States, which has backed some of the rebel groups fighting Assad, including Free Syrian Army factions fighting in the Aleppo area.
The rebels say they have been abandoned to their fate in eastern Aleppo by foreign governments such as the United States.
With no good options, the rebels have been holding talks with Russian officials which they say had produced agreements including the departure of all jihadist fighters from Aleppo. Malahifji said Lavrov’s comments had “cancelled everything” and the meetings in Turkey had “almost come to a halt”.
“The military commanders in Aleppo said ‘we will not leave the city. There is no problem with corridors for civilians to leave, but we will not leave the city’,” Malahifji said.
The Observatory and a Syrian army source said government forces had advanced further, capturing the Tariq alBab area. The Observatory said government forces had seized at least 60 percent of the area the rebels had held.
Rebels officials said the assault on Tariq al-Bab had been repelled. Fierce clashes were underway in the Aziza as rebels sought to repel another attempted advance, a rebel official said.
At least seven plumes of smoke were seen rising from rebel-held areas of the city on Saturday as the sound of jets could be heard overhead, a Reuters witness in the government-held western Aleppo said.
The Observatory said at least three people were killed in an air strike on the al-Shaer neighbourhood of eastern Aleppo.
The civil defense rescue service in eastern Aleppo said a gathering of displaced people had been struck and put the death toll at more than six. The army denies targeting civilians.