Aleppo under siege again as plans to evacuate its citizens put on hold
Print Edition
PLANS to evacuate rebel districts of Aleppo stalled yesterday as more fighting rocked the city and insurgents appeared to have rejected new conditions imposed on the deal by Iran.
Iran, one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s main backers in the battle that has all but ended four years of rebel resistance in the city, wanted the simultaneous evacuation of wounded from two villages, Foua and Kefraya, that are besieged by rebel fighters, according to rebel and UN sources.
There was no sign of that happening. Insurgents fired shells at the two majority Shiite villages in Idlib province west of Aleppo, causing some casualties, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
There was no immediate indication when the evacuation might take place but a pro-opposition TV station said it could now be delayed until today.
A cease-fire brokered on Tuesday by Russia and Turkey was intended to end years of fighting in the city, giving the Syrian leader his biggest victory in more than five years of war.
But airstrikes, shelling and gunfire erupted yesterday and Turkey accused government forces of breaking the truce. Syrian state television said rebel shelling had killed six people.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, however, that rebel resistance was likely to end in the next two or three days.
Nobody had left by dawn under the plan, according to a witness waiting at the departure point, where 20 buses stood with engines running but showed no sign of moving into rebel districts.
In what appeared to be a separate development from the planned evacuation, the Russian defense ministry said 6,000 civilians and 366 fighters had left rebel-held districts over the past 24 hours.
A total of 15,000 people, including 4,000 rebel fighters, wanted to leave Aleppo, according to a media unit run by the Syrian government’s ally Hezbollah.
The evacuation plan was the culmination of two weeks of rapid advances by the Syrian army and its allies that drove insurgents back into an ever-smaller pocket of the city under intense airstrikes and artillery fire.
By taking full control of Aleppo, Assad has proved the power of his military coalition, aided by Russia’s air force and an array of Shiite militias from across the region.
Rebels groups have been supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies, but the support they have enjoyed has fallen far short of the direct military backing given to Assad by Russia and Iran.
Russia’s decision to deploy its air force to Syria 18 months ago turned the war in Assad’s favor after rebel advances across western Syria. In addition to Aleppo, he has won back insurgent strongholds near Damascus this year.
The government and its allies have focused the bulk of their firepower on fighting rebels in western Syria rather than Islamic State, which this week managed to take back the ancient city of Palmyra, once again illustrating the challenge Assad faces.
Global concern rises
Russia regards the fall of Aleppo as a major victory against terrorists, as it and Assad characterize all the rebel groups, both Islamist and nationalist, fighting to oust him.
As the battle for Aleppo unfolded, global concern has risen over the plight of the 250,000 civilians who were thought to remain in its rebel-held eastern sector before the army advance began at the end of November.
Tens of thousands of them fled to parts of the city held by the government or by a Kurdish militia, and tens of thousands more retreated further into the rebel enclave as it rapidly shrank under the army’s lightning advance.
On Tuesday, the United Nations voiced deep concern about reports it had received of Syrian soldiers and allied Iraqi fighters shooting dead 82 people in recaptured east Aleppo districts. It accused them of “slaughter.”
“The reports we had are of people being shot in the street trying to flee and shot in their homes,” said Rupert Colville, a UN spokesman. “There could be many more.”
The Syrian army has denied carrying out killings or torture among those captured, and Russia said on Tuesday that rebels had “kept over 100,000 people in east Aleppo as human shields.”
Fear stalked the city’s streets. Some survivors trudged in the rain past dead bodies to the government-held west or the few districts still in rebel hands. Others stayed in their homes and awaited the Syrian army.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
