Aleppo rebels face defeat by army
Defining moment in 5-year war
SYRIAN government forces swept through the Old City of Aleppo on Wednesday as rebel forces – besieged and facing certain defeat
debated when to withdraw from – their shattered stronghold.
Meanwhile, nearly 150 civilians, most disabled or in need of urgent medical care, were evacuated overnight from a hospital in the Old City, the first major evacuation from the eastern sector, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday.
They had been trapped there for days by nearby fighting and as the front line moved closer. Eleven patients had died from lack of medication or been killed in crossfire before Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent teams could reach them, it said.
The head of the ICRC delegation in Syria, Marianne Gasser, who is in the city, said: “Many of (the evacuees) cannot move and need special attention and care.”
The government’s push into the historic heart of Syria’s largest city marks a defining moment in more than five years of war.
The army and allied militiamen now control three-quarters of east Aleppo, the rebels’ most important enclave.
The accelerating rebel collapse came as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Germany for a last-ditch effort to agree on conditions that would allow the city to be evacuated. Kerry said the two were due to meet again yesterday.
More than 730 people have been killed in Aleppo since the government offensive began on November 15, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
On Wednesday, the militants called for a five-day cease-fire to allow civilians, including an estimated 500 people in need of medical evacuation, to leave for the countryside north of the city.
But officials within the armed opposition, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a much broader agreement was being discussed involving a full withdrawal from the city. Activists said dozens of rebels had already fled.
On Wednesday, President Bashar Assad said victory in Aleppo would be a “huge step” towards the end of Syria’s war.
The eastern districts of the city have been under siege since July, with bombardment by Syrian and Russian warplanes killing hundreds of civilians and destroying hospitals that treated the wounded.
Repeated government warnings in recent weeks – sent via text message or printed on air-dropped leaflets – have urged residents to leave, warning that those who stay will be “annihilated”.
In the winding, close alleys of Aleppo’s 12th-century Old City, history has been erased. The 14th-century Old Souk has burnt, and at the Umayyad Mosque, metal spikes twist out where a minaret once stood.
Inside what remains of the rebel enclave, there is a growing humanitarian crisis. Amid blistering bombardment, thousands of residents displaced by the offensive now shelter inside abandoned apartment blocks.
Food has almost run out, and fuel stocks are so low that rescue workers say they are often unable to reach the wounded. Photographs from the area showed several bodies piled outside a hospital.
The Syrian war has left almost half a million people dead and spurred the greatest refugee crisis since World War II.
It has also become a proxy battleground. While Iran and Russia have kept Assad afloat, the US, Turkey and the Persian Gulf states have offered varying degrees of support to groups that took up arms against the government in 2011.
President Barack Obama and the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy have signed a public statement saying they “condemn the actions of the Syrian regime and its backers, especially Russia,” for the Aleppo attacks.