No roads to safety for terrified east Aleppo residents

Residents face fury of regime onslaught if they stay with the rebels and persecution as suspected opposition sympathisers if they enter government territory, Zouhir Al Shimale and Josh Wood report.

Syrians who fled from rebel-held areas in east Aleppo sleep in a warehouse in Duweirineh, a small village on the eastern outskirts of the embattled city, on December 1, 2016. George Ourfalian / AFP

ALEPPO, SYRIA // Mohammed Al Qassem reached the southern section of the Syrian rebels' crumbling eastern Aleppo redoubt on Monday, cold and hungry after not eating for two days.
Along with more than 20 members of his family, Mr Qassem fled his home in the northern section of the rebel enclave as Syrian government forces advanced, ultimately capturing the area. With non-stop air and artillery strikes, cars did not dare traverse the mangled streets. So the group went on foot, hugging the walls of buildings and carrying what few belongings they could. After running through the chaos for an hour, they came across some drivers who agreed to take them the rest of the way.
In what is left of the rebels' stronghold, safety is relative and fleeting. Mr Al Qassem and his relatives are crammed into a bare apartment that was abandoned two years ago. They do not have enough blankets to counter the winter cold and, as in his old neighbourhood, nearly three months of punishing siege has made food scarce. The bombardment is relentless, and while government troops have not reached here yet, they are coming. There is nowhere to run.
"I feel like I'm handcuffed," he said. "I don't know what to do."
In a lightning offensive, Syrian government forces have driven the rebels from about 40 per cent of their territory in eastern Aleppo over the past week. The quarter of a million or so civilians trapped in rebel territory faced a grim choice: stay put and hope for the best, try to run across the front line or flee deeper into rebel territory.
About 50,000 civilians have made it out of eastern Aleppo this week, with 30,000 arriving in the Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud and 20,000 in government-held western Aleppo, according the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.
But others, like Mr Al Qassem, have stayed in rebel territory.
When the world thinks about Syria's displaced, images of refugees on crowded dinghies aimed at European shores and closed borders come to mind. But in Aleppo, some of the most harrowing flights of the war are measured by city blocks, metres and minutes.
Those who have arrived safely in the southern section of the rebel enclave do not find refuge: like the areas they have just escaped, this place is under heavy and near-constant attack.
An artillery strike on Wednesday killed at least 45 civilians, most believed to be fleeing neighbourhoods that were overrun by government forces, rescue workers and activists said.
Photos and videos of the aftermath of the attack on Jab Al Quba neighbourhood showed bodies strewn in the street, bags hastily stuffed with belongings lying beside them. One woman still had her backpack resting neatly on her shoulders. Blood pooled underneath her.
There is great danger in trying to retreat from the government offensive into rebel-held territory, but the east Aleppo residents who do so have their reasons. Those on the front lines who choose to stay in their homes until the area is conquered by regime forces risk being killed in the crossfire, as do those who try to cross flee across government lines into the west.
There are also reports from the Observatory that hundreds of men have been arrested by government forces after crossing into regime-held western Aleppo. And there are fears that men may be forced to join the Syrian military if they encounter government forces. Now many are afraid to leave what is left of rebel territory.
Russia added cause for concern on Wednesday when Sergei Rudskoi, a defence ministry official, claimed that "the entire male population" of eastern Aleppo over the age of 12 had been forcibly conscripted by the rebels. The statement suggested that Syrian government forces could consider many men fleeing the area to be combatants.
Khaled Al Ali, 41, is among the male civilians in eastern Aleppo who are too afraid to cross government lines. Without fuel for his cab, the former taxi driver fled the government offensive on foot amid heavy shelling. Mr Al Ali believes sanctuary with the rebels to be his only choice.
"I can't go to the other side as many of my relatives are fighters," he said. "Even though I haven't been involved in the opposition movement against the regime, I fear that the regime will not leave me alone and I will end up arrested. So I'd rather stay than leave for western Aleppo."
Civilians in east Aleppo, as well rebels who laid down arms, were offered safe passage out of the city to either government or rebel-held areas during brief unilateral ceasefires declared by Russia and the Syrian government in recent weeks. However, there were few takers amid suspicions of the regime and fighting at designated exit points.
The United Nations said on Thursday that Russia had proposed setting up four humanitarian corridors into east Aleppo to bring in aid and evacuate severely wounded people. These were also UN objectives during the recent truces, but were undermined by insufficient security guarantees.
Russia had pledged to respect the corridors, and the UN was confident the rebels would do the same, said Jan Egeland, head of the UN-backed humanitarian task force for Syria.
As for western Aleppo, he said the main concern was finding shelter for civilians flooding in from the east, who join about 400,000 displaced Syrians already in that part of the city.
Although thousands of civilians from eastern Aleppo have taken this option in recent days, many like Mr Ali will probably stay behind and face whatever comes next.
If no action is taken to protect these civilians, the United Nations' humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien warned on Wednesday, eastern Aleppo could turn into "one giant graveyard".
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* Josh Wood reported from Beirut, with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse