Russia sets brief ceasefire for Aleppo
Eight-hour ‘pause’ Thursday will allow militants, civilians to leave besieged city
BEIRUT— Russian and Syrian forces will halt hostilities for eight hours in the eastern districts of Aleppo, Russia’s military announced on Monday, a day on which opposition activists said the forces’ airstrikes killed at least 36 people, including several children, in and around the divided city.
The two militaries will observe a “humanitarian pause” between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Thursday to allow civilians and militants safe passage out of the city, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of Russia’s general staff said in Moscow. Militants, the wounded and sick would be allowed to evacuate to the neighbouring rebel-held province of Idlib.
United Nations humanitarian officials have pleaded with combatants to observe weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian relief into the city’s besieged eastern districts, but Russian and Syrian forces have only escalated their aerial and ground assault on the rebel-held areas in recent weeks. The airstrikes have claimed hundreds of lives, wounded many, flattened apartment buildings and laid waste to the already crippled medical sector.
But Russian and Syrian leaders are now capitalizing on a proposal by the UN’s envoy earlier this month to allow Al Qaeda-linked militants to leave in exchange for peace and local administration for the eastern districts.
Rebels in the east, along with many residents, spurned the proposition, citing their distrust of the government side. And Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution mandating an immediate ceasefire.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner, speaking to reporters in Washington, noted that the people of Aleppo “have been subjected to near-constant bombardment and airstrikes” that have killed many civilians and levelled much of the city’s infrastructure in an effort “to starve out and to drive out the opposition and civilians.”
“If there is actually an eight-hour pause in the unremitting suffering of the people of Aleppo, that would be a good thing. But frankly, it’s a bit too little, too late,” Toner said.
Monday’s Russian announcement did not include any promises of an extended ceasefire or local administration. It followed a bloody day of airstrikes on rebel-held districts in and around Aleppo.
At least 23 people were killed in airstrike that also wounded dozens in the village of Oweijel, just west of Aleppo, according to the Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another monitoring group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the air raid was carried out by Russian warplanes and put the death toll at 30. More than a dozen people were also killed in the Marjeh neighbourhood in eastern Aleppo. The Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, said those killed included 11 people with the same family name, ranging from a monthold baby girl to a 25-year-old man.
The Observatory said at least 50 civilians, including 18 children, were killed in airstrikes on the eastern part of the city in the 24 hours before the Russian announcement.
Monday’s airstrikes coincided with the launch in neighbouring Iraq of a major operation by Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, to retake the northern city of Mosul from Daesh. There have been concerns the government in Damascus could use the timing of the Mosul offensive to press its onslaught in Aleppo while world attention is diverted to developments in Iraq.
Also Monday, Syrian state media claimed 49 rebels were killed and wounded in fighting in the southern Aleppo neighbourhoods of Sheikh Saeed and Shurfa.
In the nearby province of Idlib, a U.S.-led coalition drone struck a car in the provincial capital, killing all inside, according to the Observatory and a jihadi official. It was not immediately clear who was in the vehicle, but such attacks have previously targeted officials with Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Fatah al-Sham Front.