Residents begin flight from besieged Aleppo

MORE than 150 people have left opposition-held Aleppo through a “humanitarian corridor” to the Syrian government-controlled west.

The country’s official news agency yesterday released photographs of mainly women and children walking past soldiers and boarding buses. “They were welcomed by members of the army and taken by bus to temporary shelters,” it said.

Russia’s defence ministry said that 169 people had left since Thursday, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, confirmed that “a number” of civilians had left eastern Aleppo, which is home to 300,000 people.

Aleppo, once the country’s main economic hub, has been divided into regime-controlled west and rebel-controlled east since 2012, when anti-Bashar al-Assad protests turned into an armed insurrection. Those in the opposition-held areas have faced four years of heavy bombardment, fierce fighting and the threat of starvation, often out of loyalty to the revolution.

Many residents have dismissed the regime’s offer of supposed safe passage, saying they fear for their lives and for relatives left behind.

“Almost no one has left since the amnesty was announced, most people don’t want to abandon the uprising,” said Mohammad al-Zein, a lawyer in Aleppo.

Dr Fatima Almouslem, one of only two obstetricians left in eastern Aleppo, said she would be “one of the last ones left” in the city.

“As a doctor they consider me to be supporting the opposition,” she claimed. “They will put me in jail and then kill me if I leave.”