Aleppo cease-fire unravels, leaving trapped civilians in the crossfire
BEIRUT — A cease-fire to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians from the remaining opposition-held neighborhoods of Aleppo unraveled on Wednesday, once again raising the specter of a bloody end to the battle for Syria’s largest city as residents reported the resumption of shelling and brutal bombing runs.
Opponents of President Bashar Assad accused the government and its allies of scuttling the deal by adding new conditions, including the lifting of a rebel siege on two pro-government Shiite villages in nearby Idlib province.
However, hours after it crumbled, the rebels said the deal was back on. There was no comment from the government or its allies, and minutes after the new cease-fire was to take effect at 11:30 p.m. local time, there were still reports of shelling in the few blocks of the city under rebel control.
Three rebel spokesmen said the first group of wounded people and civilians were to be escorted out of the city early Thursday morning. Rebels would follow, they said, adding that the conditions had not changed and that they had even agreed with the Russians on the exact number of buses and convoys to be deployed in the rescue.
The Syrian military media denied an agreement had been reached and said in a statement that the negotiations were “complicated.”
The evacuation was to have begun at dawn Wednesday, but quickly derailed, descending into terrifying violence. Residents said government buses arrived in the pre-dawn hours at agreed upon meeting points, where the wounded were first in line to be evacuated after surviving weeks of intense fighting amid destroyed medical facilities and depleted supplies.
But they were turned away by progovernment militias manning the checkpoints. Then violence erupted: shelling and then airstrikes. The rebels retaliated, at one point shelling the pro-government villages of Foua and Kfraya in Idlib and detonating a car bomb in a frontline area.
Residents, activists and medical staff described mayhem in the tiny sliver of Aleppo still under opposition control as volleys of shells rained down on the area where tens of thousands of civilians were trapped alongside rebels in gutted apartment buildings and other shelters.
Videos shared online by residents huddling indoors recorded the sounds of war — deafening explosions that highlighted fears of a bloodbath. Rescuers were overwhelmed and a comprehensive casualty toll was impossible.
“They began to strike as if there’s no such thing as a cease-fire or civilian evacuation,” said Mahmoud Raslan, a local media activist.
Mohammed Abu Jaafar, head of forensics in eastern Aleppo, said residents felt “duped.”
“People have left their shelters .... to be ready for the evacuation. I can’t describe it,” Abu Jaafar said. “Since the morning, they started to target the areas where people have gathered . ... These people were walking to the crossings designated for exit.”
The initial evacuation deal was mediated late Tuesday by Turkey and Russia as the rebel enclave rapidly dissolved, ceding more and more territory in the face of the brutal advance by Syrian forces, backed by Russia and Shiite militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. Along with Russia, Iran backs Assad’s government and has committed advisers and elite Revolutionary Guard forces to the government side. Turkey backs some of the rebel groups fighting to topple Assad.