The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Exit from war zone ignored
The Syrian government has had little response to a new corridor opened for rebels and civilians who want to leave besieged eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo.
The move is part of a Russia-announced pause in the fighting in the ravaged city, but the UN humanitarian agency said medical evacuations have been impossible so far because of a lack of security.
A UN official said opposition fighters are blocking medical evacuations because the government and Russia are impeding deliveries of medical and humanitarian supplies into the city.
Residents in eastern Aleppo have said many will not leave as there are no guarantees that the evacuees will not be arrested by government forces, and Russia said fighters from the Al-Nusra militant group are refusing to leave.
Even as the corridor opened along Aleppo’s main artery to the north, Castello Road, intense clashes and shelling erupted in the Jobar neighbourhood in the capital of Damascus.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
“No guarantees that evacuees will not be arrested”
Rights said there were casualties among rebels and government forces.
The pan-Arab AlMayadeen TV aired live footage from Castello Road showing bulldozers that had opened the route.
Buses and ambulances were parked by the road waiting to take evacuees.