Hundreds of Syrian troops advance in Aleppo
Russia proposes four humanitarian corridors: UN
ALEPPO, Syria, Dec 1, (Agencies): Hundreds of elite Syrian troops moved into east Aleppo Thursday ahead of a push into the most densely populated areas, as regime ally Russia called for exit corridors to evacuate civilians.
Despite global criticism including the UN warning Aleppo risked becoming a “giant graveyard”, government forces have pressed an assault to retake control of the divided city.
The offensive — backed by artillery — has spurred an exodus of tens of thousands of residents from the rebelheld east.
The relentless barrage has left Aleppo’s streets strewn with the bodies of men, women and children, many lying next to the suitcases they had packed to escape.
Steady artillery fire could again be heard pounding rebel areas early Thursday, with heavy rainfall adding to the misery.
The assault has seen President Bashar al-Assad’s forces make significant gains in the last week.
After overrunning the city’s northeast, they were in control of 40 percent of the territory once held by opposition forces in Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The regime is tightening the noose on the remaining section of east Aleppo under rebel control,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
He said hundreds of fighters from the elite Republican Guard and Fourth Division arrived in Aleppo on Thursday “in preparation for street battles” in the densely populated southeast.
“They are moving in on the ground, but they are afraid of ambushes because of the density of both residents and fighters,” he said.
The violence in Aleppo has sparked widespread outrage at the regime, but also at its steadfast supporter Moscow.
On Thursday, Russia proposed setting up four humanitarian corridors into east Aleppo to bring in aid and evacuate severely wounded people.
Russia announced “they want to sit down in Aleppo with our people there to discuss how we can use the four (humanitarian) corridors to evacuate people out,” Jan Egeland, head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, told reporters in Geneva.
He said Russia has pledged to respect the corridors, and that “we (the UN) now feel confident that the armed opposition groups will do the same.”
Moscow has announced several humanitarian pauses in Aleppo to allow civilians to flee, but until the recent military escalation, only a handful did so.
In Turkey on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had used every opportunity to help civilians, but accused rebels of threatening “to prevent passage of humanitarian convoys and fire on them.”
Russia was criticised at Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting on Syria, with British ambassador Matthew Rycroft accusing Moscow of supporting “a deliberate act of starvation and a deliberate withholding of medical care.”
Thick cloud cover and rain deterred air strikes on rebel-held districts of east Aleppo on Thursday, though artillery bombardment and heavy fighting continued on the ground, a monitor and civil defence workers said.
Rebel groups are trying to prevent further gains by government forces that have seized more than a third of territory held by the opposition in Aleppo city in recent days.
The Syrian army and pro-government militias clashed with rebels along the edges of the shrinking opposition-held enclave, particularly in the Sheikh Saeed district in the south and in the east of city near the airport, it said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the weather impeded aerial bombardment of rebel-held areas on Thursday, but artillery shelling continued.