Aleppo left out of deal to ‘freeze’ fighting in Syria

At least 30 killed on Friday by air strikes and rebel shelling in northern city as Syrian military announces short ceasefires in Latakia, Damascus and Eastern Ghouta.

Syrians evacuate an injured man amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following an air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al Qatarji in Aleppo city on April 29, 2016. Ameer Alhalbi / AFP

Aleppo // Syria’s military on Friday announced a deal to halt fighting in some parts of the country but not Aleppo city, despite international outrage over renewed violence there that has killed more than 230 people in a week.

Syria’s armed forces said that the freeze would begin at 1am on Saturday and last for 24 hours in Damascus and the nearby rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta, and 72 hours in the coastal Latakia province.

A Syrian security source said the deal was brokered by the US and Russia, but that Moscow had refused a request by Washington to include Aleppo. Russia is a key backer of Assad’s regime, while the US has supported various opposition factions in the country.

The White House said the United States and Russia have been working to renew the cessation of hostilities in Syria that took effect on February 27.

“Our hope is by refreshing this agreement ... we can build momentum again toward a broadly observed cessation of hostilities,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

US special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney said the agreement was a “general recommitment” to the original truce, “not a new set of local ceasefires”.

However, regime aircraft pounded rebel-held areas of Aleppo again on Friday, killing at least 17 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rebel groups fired a barrage of rockets on government-controlled western neighbourhoods, killing at least 13 people, the monitor said.

Shelling and air raids in Syria’s second city over the past week have killed more than 230 civilians and brought the ceasefire to the verge of collapse.

One air raid on Friday hit a local clinic in the rebel-held Al Maja neighbourhood, wounding several people including a nurse, the civil defence group known as the White Helmets said.

The clinic, which had been providing dental services and treatment for chronic illnesses for about five years, was badly damaged.

“We serve civilians in this establishment, there were no fighters here,” said Hassan Al Ahmad, who heads the clinic.

The attack on the clinic follows the bombing of a hospital in Aleppo on Wednesday that killed 30 people including medical staff

The UN’s rights chief on Friday slammed the world powers backing opposing sides in Syria.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the renewed violence showed a “monstrous disregard for civilians lives by all parties to the conflict”.

“In the minds of many, the world’s great powers have in effect become accomplices to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of human beings, and the displacement of millions.”

An online campaign to halt the carnage picked up speed, with Twitter users posting pictures of destroyed buildings in flames with the hashtag #AleppoIsBurning.

In a western government-held neighbourhood, Nour Shmeilan, an Orthodox Christian, said she was too afraid to attend Good Friday church services.

“We’ve packed all our things in a single suitcase and are ready to flee at any moment,” she said.

Thursday was the deadliest day in Aleppo since the violence flared last week, with 54 civilians killed, according to the Observatory.

“It is the worst day in Aleppo in five years. The regime did not spare a single neighbourhood,” a resident said.

Russian Lt Gen Sergei Kuralenko, based in the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia province, said “all combat and using any weapons will be forbidden” during the freeze announced on Friday.

“We call upon all parties interested in establishing peace on Syrian land to support the Russian-American initiative and not disrupt the ‘regime of silence’,” he said, quoted by RIA Novosti.

Although the February 27 truce had seen violence drop across large parts of the country, fighting against extremist groups, who were not included, continued in Latakia, the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and elsewhere.

Fighting between the powerful Jaish Al Islam rebel group, which has signed on to the truce, and regime forces has been also been building in recent weeks in the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus controlled by the group.

* Agence France-Presse