Wary Aleppo residents shun chance to escape

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 Russiaannounced 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 go.

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 Rights said there were casualties among rebels and government forces.

The pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen 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.

Before the pause, Aleppo’s besieged districts were subjected to relentless Syrian and Russian air strikes for weeks.

In Geneva, the UN human rights chief said Aleppo is “a slaughterhouse” and urged the Human Rights Council to set aside “political disagreements” to focus on suffering civilians.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein delivered the stark remarks in an address by video-conference to the 47-member UN-backed rights body as it opened a special session on Aleppo called by Britain.

Despite this, Syria’s ambassador in Geneva claimed the “human suffering in Aleppo is not an emergency” and lashed out at “propaganda” by Britain and other countries, alleging that they have armed the rebels.