REUTERS - Rebels in
Aleppo have told the United States they will not leave their besieged enclave
in the city after Moscow called for talks with Washington over their
withdrawal, signaling they will fight on even as their top commander was
wounded.
A Syrian
military source said the army aimed to take full control of Aleppo within
weeks, after seizing swathes of the city's rebel-held east in an advance poised
to deal a major blow to the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.
With more than
30,000 people uprooted by the latest fighting, residents who fled eastern Aleppo
for government-held areas early in the war began returning to the Hanano
district recently captured from the rebels to inspect their homes.
Under
relentless attack, the rebels may have no choice but to negotiate a withdrawal
from their shrinking, besieged enclave in eastern Aleppo, where tens of
thousands of civilians are thought to be sheltering.
The Western
and regional states that have backed the rebellion appear unwilling or unable
to do anything to prevent a major defeat for the opposition fighting to topple
Assad.
Restoring full
control over Aleppo would mark the biggest triumph yet for Assad in a war that
spiraled from protests against his rule in 2011. The campaign waged by the
Syrian army and its allies in Aleppo is one of the most ferocious of the war,
with hundreds reported killed in recent weeks alone.
Russia, whose
air force has helped the government close in on eastern Aleppo this year, said
on Saturday it was ready for talks with the United States over a full
withdrawal of rebels from Aleppo.
Speaking to
Reuters from Turkey, senior rebel official Zakaria Malahifji said groups
fighting in Aleppo told U.S. officials on Saturday they would not leave the
city.
The U.S.
officials had asked the rebels "do you want to leave, (or) do you want to
be steadfast", Malahifji said.
"Our
response to the Americans was as follows: 'we cannot leave our city, our homes,
to the mercenary militias that the regime has mobilized in Aleppo'," said
Malahifji, the head of the political office of an Aleppo rebel group.
"They
listened to the response and did not comment," he said, adding the rebel
groups had reiterated calls for humanitarian corridors to be opened for the
delivery of food and medicine into eastern Aleppo and the evacuation of the
wounded.
The United
States has yet to comment on the proposal made by Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov on Saturday for talks on the withdrawal of all rebel fighters
"without exclusion" from Aleppo.
ARMY EXPECTS
TO TAKE EASTERN ALEPPO "IN WEEKS"
The rebels
said the Russians had retreated from proposals agreed at talks with rebel
groups in Turkey that would have resulted in jihadist fighters leaving the
city, a ceasefire and humanitarian aid deliveries.
The Syrian
army, backed on the ground by an array of militias including Shi'ite groups
from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, has vowed to crush the rebels in Aleppo.
"The
expectation is weeks," the military source said, referring to the
timeframe for taking back the whole city.
"The
Syrian Arab Army will continue to implement its missions until the elimination
of the terrorists and the recovery of control over all the eastern
districts," he said.
Pro-Damascus
sources have previously said the army aimed to take back all of Aleppo by the
time U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. The reason was
to mitigate the risk of a shift in U.S. policy on Syria, though Trump has
indicated he could end U.S. support for the rebels.
The United
Nations estimates that close to 30,000 people have been displaced by the latest
fighting, 18,000 of them leaving to government-held areas, a further 8,500
going to the Kurdish-controlled neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud and the rest
moving within rebel-held areas.
U.N. envoy
Staffan de Mistura has said more than 100,000 people may still be in the
rebel-held area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group
that reports on the war, said it could be as many as 200,000 people.
Food and fuel
supplies are critically low in eastern Aleppo, where hospitals have been
repeatedly bombed out of operation.
The rebels,
including foreign-backed groups, say they have been abandoned to their fate in
a war against better armed enemies including the Russian air force and
Lebanon's highly trained Hezbollah.
PEOPLE INSPECT
HOMES
In another
blow to the rebels, the head of a new rebel alliance was seriously wounded on
Saturday, rebel officials said. Abu Abdelrahman Nour will be replaced as head
of the "Aleppo army" he was appointed to lead last week.
The army and
its allies have opened numerous fronts against the rebel-held east in what
rebels see as an effort to deplete their ammunition and men. Malahifji said the
rebels could remain steadfast for "an excellent period" of time.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said the army or its allies were attacking in at
least eight places. It says rebels have lost more than 60 percent of the area
they held until recently. Rebels say the amount captured is less.
Observatory
Director Rami Abdulrahman said the pro-government forces were seeking to drive
another wedge into the rebel-held sector from Aleppo's ancient citadel
southwards.
The government
took journalists to the recently captured Hanano district of northeastern Aleppo
on Sunday, using a road through the city center that was reopened two days ago.
A Reuters
journalist said buses leaving from western Aleppo were bringing a steady stream
of people to inspect homes they had not seen in years. Russian military trucks
also delivered aid to the captured eastern districts of eastern Aleppo.
REUTERS
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