Syria army halts raids on Aleppo, Russia says
But White House adopts wait-and-see stance as Moscow says move is to allow evacuation of civilians from east of city
The Syrian army has halted attacks on Aleppo in Syria to allow for the evacuation of civilians trapped by fighting, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday. “Combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians,” Mr Lavrov said in Munich, Germany, Russian news agencies reported.
The White House reacted cautiously to the news, saying it would “wait and see” whether Russia followed through with actions.
“Our approach from the beginning has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say but scrutinise their actions,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said yesterday. “That statement is an indication that something positive could happen, but we’re going to have to wait and see whether those statements are reflected on the ground.”
The development came after US secretary of state John Kerry said he was hopeful about halting the siege of Aleppo after meeting Mr Lavrov at a conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Hamburg yesterday. “We are working on something,” Mr Kerry said after they met. Syria talks will resume in Paris tomorrow, German foreign minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier said.
France, a backer of the opposition to Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, is convening foreign ministers of like-minded countries in Paris to seek a strategy in the wake of the Aleppo onslaught, although few diplomats expect anything concrete to be achieved.
Calls for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo continued yesterday when the UN warned that as many as 500 sick and injured children needed to be moved from besieged areas in Aleppo.
“There has to be a pause,” said Jan Egeland, head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, pointing out that civilians had little chance of escaping the besieged part of eastern Aleppo. “At the moment, those who ... try to escape are caught in crossfire, they are caught in shelling, [and] risk being hit by snipers,” he said. “Several hundred children, sick and wounded ... need to get out.”
Yesterday’s taskforce meeting was told that between 100 and 500 children had been identified as needing medical evacuation, he said.
In the past three weeks, government forces have seized about 85 per cent of territory rebels controlled in east Aleppo. The White Helmets rescue group yesterday urged international organisations to protect its members in rebel-held parts of east Aleppo in the face of the advance by government forces.
“If we are not evacuated, our volunteers face torture and execution in the regime’s detention centres,” the rescuers said. The White Helmets, nominated this year for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work, said it had “less than 48 hours left” before the army arrived in parts of east Aleppo still held by rebels.
Yesterday, hundreds of families, most of them from Salhine, arrived in Aziza, in south-east Aleppo, after rebel-held areas in the east of the city fell one by one to the advancing Syrian army. “I feel reborn,” said Yasser, 40, a father of eight. He said his family fled east Aleppo after his 15-year-old son was killed when a shell hit their home.
ALEPPO // Syria’s army battled to take more ground from rebels in east Aleppo yesterday after president Bashar Al Assad said victory for his troops in the city would be a turning point in the war.
The gains came before Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the Syrian army had stopped active military operations in east Aleppo because a large effort to remove civilians from the city was under way, Russia’s Ria news agency reported. It was not clear whether this had happened. Russia is a key ally of Mr Al Assad.
Three weeks into a major offensive to retake all of Aleppo, government troops have captured about 85 per cent of the territory once held by rebel forces in the city’s east and are continuing to push.
Rebel areas of east Aleppo faced intense bombardment yesterday and residents could be seen fleeing. The explosions from bombs were so strong that they shook the windows of buildings in Aleppo’s government- controlled west. Plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the east.
In an interview with the Syrian newspaper Al Watan published yesterday, Mr Al Assad predicted victory for his forces in Aleppo, but he admitted it would not end the country’s conflict entirely.
“It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us,” Mr Al Assad said. “Let’s be realistic – it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria ... But it will be a huge step towards this end.”
A government victory “will mean the transformation of the course of the war across Syria”, he said.
Rebel forces seized control of large parts of Aleppo in 2012, dividing Syria’s former com- mercial hub in two – the west held by the government, and the east held by the opposition.
For years Aleppo was a key battleground in the war and a rebel stronghold, but Mr Al Assad’s forces have recently made a concerted push to retake the city.
Yesterday the army – backed by fighters from Iran and Hizbollah – was continuing to advance, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based opposition monitoring group said there were heavy clashes in several rebel neighbourhoods, including Bustan Al Qasr, Saif Al Dawla, Zibdiya, Sukkari and Kallaseh.
All rebel areas were under heavy bombardment, it said, and opposition forces were returning fire with rockets into west Aleppo.
At least 384 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo during the offensive, while rebel fire into the west has killed at least 105 people over the same period, the Observatory claimed.
The assault has forced at least 80,000 people from their homes.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday it had carried out an overnight operation with Syria’s Red Crescent to move 150 civilians, many disabled or sick, from a health facility in the Old City.
“These patients and civilians had been trapped for days because of heavy clashes ,” said ICRC Syria delegation head Marianne Gasser.
“Many need special attention and care. It must have been terrifying for them.”
It is unclear how many civilians remain in rebel territory, but there were an estimated 250,000 in east Aleppo before the latest offensive.