Syrian army halts attacks on east Aleppo: Russia

The White House reacted cautiously to the news, saying it would “wait and see” whether Moscow, which is backing the Syrian government in the war, followed through with actions.

People carrying their belonging and leaving the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, Syria on December 7, 2016. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana), the army secured the exit of new batches of civilians who were besieged by ‘terrorists’ in east of Aleppo after recapturing several neighbourhoods. Sana Handout/EPAShow less

MOSCOW // The Syrian army has halted its military attacks on Aleppo in Syria to allow for the evacuation of civilians trapped by fighting, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

“Combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians,” Mr Lavrov said in the German city of Munich, Russian news agencies reported.

The White House reacted cautiously to the news, saying it would “wait and see” whether Russia followed through with actions.

“Our approach from the beginning has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say but scrutinise their actions,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “That statement is an indication that something positive could happen, but we’re going to have to wait and see whether those statements are reflected on the ground.”

The development came after US secretary of state John Kerry said he was hopeful about halting the siege of Aleppo after meeting Mr Lavrov at a conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Hamburg on Thursday.

“We are working on something,” Mr Kerry said after they met. Syria talks will resume in Paris on Saturday, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

France, a backer of the opposition to Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, is convening foreign ministers of like-minded countries in Paris to seek a strategy in the wake of the Aleppo onslaught, although few diplomats expect anything concrete to be achieved.

Calls for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo continued on Thursday when the United Nations warned that as many as 500 sick and injured children needed to be moved from besieged areas in Aleppo.

“There has to be a pause,” said Jan Egeland, head of the UN-backed humanitarian task force for Syria, pointing out that civilians had little chance of escaping the besieged part of eastern Aleppo.

“At the moment, those who ... try to escape are caught in crossfire, they are caught in shelling, [and] risk being hit by snipers,” he said. “Several hundred children, sick and wounded ... need to get out.”

Thursday’s task force meeting was told that between 100 and 500 children had been identified as needing medical evacuation, he said.

In the past three weeks, government forces have seized about 85 per cent of territory rebels controlled in east Aleppo.

The White Helmets rescue group on Thursday urged international organisations to protect its members in rebel-held parts of east Aleppo in the face of the advance by government forces.

“If we are not evacuated, our volunteers face torture and execution in the regime’s detention centres,” the rescuers said. The White Helmets, nominated this year for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work, said it had “less than 48 hours left” before the army arrived in parts of east Aleppo still held by rebels.

On Thursday, hundreds of families, most of them from Salhine, arrived in Aziza, south-east Aleppo, after rebel-held ­areas in the east of the city fell one by one to the advancing Syrian army. “I feel reborn,” said Yasser, 40, a father of eight. He said his family fled east Aleppo after his 15-year-old son was killed when a shell hit their home.

* Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg and Reuters