Assad offers starving rebels safe passage
Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s regime has offered a safe corridor out of Aleppo to civilians, after the United Nations Security Council demanded humanitarian access to the besieged city.
State television reported that mobile phone text messages were used to promise safe passage for both civilians and rebel fighters if they laid down their arms.
It followed calls on Tuesday from Stephen O’Brien, the UN aid chief, for a 48-hour ceasefire to allow aid to reach civilians facing starvation. Aleppo was on the brink of a ‘‘medieval and shameful’’ siege, he said.
Britain, France and the United States called for humanitarian access during a meeting of the UN Security Council, comparing the situation to that in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War 20 years ago.
Assad’s forces have tightened their grip around rebel-held areas of the city, where 300,000 civilians are trapped.
Castello Rd, the last rebel-held access point, fell to government troops on July 11. Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN, alleged that weapons were being smuggled to the al Qaeda-aligned Nusra Front via Castello Rd but acknowledged there was ‘‘a need to prevent humanitarian disaster’’.
The Syrian regime has repeat- edly used starvation as a weapon to break the will of rebel enclaves around Homs and Damascus, evoking complaints but little else from the international community.
The UN promised in May to begin air drops to besieged areas but has since backed away from the pledge, insisting that it needs Syrian government permission. Food is expected to run out in rebel-held Aleppo by the middle of next month, according to aid agencies.
Russian and Syrian government air strikes hit four hospitals this week. Oxfam and Mercy Corps said a warehouse in the city was also targeted, destroying 10,000 emergency food parcels.
At least 25 people, eight of them children, were killed by barrel bomb attacks in the past two days, said Ali Alhalabi, a member of a monitoring group inside Aleppo.
‘‘[The regime’s] goal is to get the city with the least losses possible,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s why I think they will open the road for some time, allowing civilians to get out in return for taking the city without any fight – exactly like what happened in some quarters of Homs three years ago.’’
He said that many civilians would try to leave, though some rebel groups remained committed to the defence of the city, and others were preparing to try to break the siege from outside.