Aleppo rebels, civilians offered exit
Many reject escape plan from besieged Syrian city, fearing government detention
BEIRUT— After months of fighting to encircle opponents in Aleppo, Syrian authorities backed by Russia on Thursday offered safe corridors out for residents and rebels in the northern city’s besieged quarters, underlining the government’s determination to seal off the metropolis and force an eventual surrender by the opposition.
Many residents dismissed the offer, saying it presents them with an impossible choice between a slow death if they stay behind and possible detention if they attempt to leave.
The encirclement of rebel-held eastern Aleppo sets the stage for a drawn-out siege with potentially huge implications for the future of the armed opposition to President Bashar Assad. The military continued to consolidate its grip Thursday, seizing a district on the northern edge of the city.
“If Assad shows that he is winning Aleppo and he’s now also advancing on the rebels in Damascus, it could trigger a more dramatic shift by finally convincing opposition groups that they have lost the war,” said Aron Lund, non-resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The announcement on humanitarian corridors was made by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and was followed by a general amnesty offer by Assad for rebels who give up their weapons and surrender to authorities over the next three months.
Rebels and residents of Aleppo said they were deeply skeptical of the offer, and there was no sign of people massing to leave the besieged parts of the city.
“I will not leave. I will be the last man in the city,” said Mohammed Zein Khandakani, a 28-year-old resident of the Maadi neighbourhood of Aleppo who volunteers with the city’s medical council.
But Khandakani, formerly a lawyer who was detained for a month in the early days of the protests against the Syrian government, said he was worried about his family.
Afather of two — the youngest a girl of 9 months — he said despite the risk of maltreatment and even arrest, he is urging his mother, wife and sister to use the safe passages to leave the city.
He said he hopes the Russian role and intense international attention to the humanitarian corridors proposition means the government would abstain from flagrant violations.
Flyers dropped over eastern Aleppo showed supposed corridors leading to government areas, but the me- dia office for the opposition’s civil defence search-and-rescue group in east Aleppo said no safe corridors have been opened.
Ibrahim Haj, director of the media office in Aleppo, said families would probably send their women and children through the corridors if they were deemed secure enough, but not men.
“Most of the men — everyone here — is wanted by the regime,” said Haj. “So, what amnesty?”
The UN says Aleppo is now possibly the largest besieged area in Syria, with an estimated 300,000 residents inside. Humanitarian groups have warned of a major catastrophe if the siege continues.
Rights groups said opening safe passages to civilians trapped in eastern Aleppo city won’t avert a catastrophe and does not give Syrian and Russian forces carte blanche to further blockade the opposition-controlled territory.
Assad has issued amnesty offers several times. The latest offer, like those before it, is largely seen by opposition fighters as a publicity stunt and psychological warfare against the rebels.
More than a quarter of a million people have died and millions have been displaced since March 2011, when Syria’s conflict erupted.