AFP- Rebels in Aleppo
called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians Wednesday after
losing more territory including the Old City to a Syrian army
offensive.
Heavy fighting in
the city stoked mounting international concern, with six Western powers urging
a ceasefire and UN chief Ban Ki-moon describing the plight of civilians as
"heartbreaking".
US Secretary of
State John Kerry was to hold fresh talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov
in Hamburg, Germany, later Wednesday on efforts to halt the fighting.
A blistering new
offensive launched last month has seen President Bashar al-Assad's forces move
closer than ever to retaking all of Aleppo and winning their most important
victory yet in the civil war that began in 2011.
Rebel fighters, who
took control of east Aleppo in 2012, have suffered a string of defeats in
recent days, losing about 80 percent of their former territory in the city,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Regime forces scored
another important victory on Wednesday when the rebels retreated from the Old
City, the historic heart of Aleppo, said the Observatory, a Britain-based
monitor.
Increasingly
cornered in a sliver of territory in the city's southeast, rebel factions
issued a joint statement calling for an "immediate five-day humanitarian
ceasefire".
The statement also
called for "the evacuation of civilians who wish to leave" the city's
east to rebel territory in northern Aleppo province.
- Disaster 'before
our very eyes' -
Opposition fighters
have rejected talk of leaving Aleppo, however, and Syria's government has said
it will not agree to any ceasefire without a full rebel withdrawal.
The army extended
its advances on Wednesday afternoon, with state media saying government troops
had taken control of the Bab al-Nayrab, Al-Maadi and Salhin neighbourhoods.
Remaining rebel-held
districts were coming under heavy bombardment, an AFP correspondent in the area
said.
The statement from
the six Western powers -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the
United States -- said a humanitarian disaster was "taking place before our
very eyes" in Aleppo.
"The urgent
need now is for an immediate ceasefire to allow the United Nations to get
humanitarian assistance to people in eastern Aleppo," the statement said.
It lashed out at the
regime in Damascus and its "foreign backers, especially Russia,"
accusing them of blocking emergency help.
Moscow is a key
Assad ally and launched an air war in support of his forces last year, while
Washington and other Western nations have supported rebel forces.
UN chief Ban also
appealed for a ceasefire, saying in Vienna: "What we have seen most
recently in eastern Aleppo, that is really heartbreaking."
Moscow and
Washington have traded blame this week over a series of stalled efforts to
bring about a ceasefire.
The assault has
prompted a mass exodus of east Aleppo residents and the Observatory said
Wednesday that at least 80,000 had now fled their homes.
It said the figure
included residents who had sought refuge in the government-held west of the
city and a Kurdish-controlled enclave, but not those who fled to remaining
rebel territory.
- Fleeing civilians
-
Assad's government
has been urging civilians to leave east Aleppo for months and accused rebels of
holding residents hostage for use as "human shields".
Overnight, Syrian
soldiers helped residents evacuate newly recaptured areas near the Old City.
Inside one bus,
evacuees could be seen huddling together, a baby wrapped in heavy blankets fast
asleep at his mother's feet as she sat waiting for the vehicle to leave.
"The situation
was very difficult," said Um Abdu, 30, as she left the Bab al-Hadid neighbourhood
with her husband, five children, mother and siblings.
"We lived on
edge for the last four days," she told AFP. "The gunmen were using us
to protect themselves... but then the army came and we were able to
leave."
The government
offensive has killed at least 369 people in east Aleppo, including 45 children,
the Observatory says.
Rebel fire into the
west of the city has killed at least 92 people, including 34 children, in the
same period, it says.
Aleppo city's
surgeon general Fawwaz Hajjo told AFP that seven children were among 12 more
people killed Wednesday in rebel rocket attacks.
Russia said
Wednesday that an army colonel working as a military adviser in Syria had died
several days after being wounded by rebel shelling in Aleppo.
More than 300,000
people have been killed since the conflict began, and over half the population
has been displaced, with millions becoming refugees.
AFP
Follow Solenzo Blog on
0 Comments