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Syrian troops in control of Aleppo's Old City after rebels withdraw Syrian troops in control of Aleppo's Old City after rebels withdraw
(35 minutes later)
Syrian government forces control all of Aleppo’s historic Old City after rebel fighters withdrew in the face of army advances overnight. Forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad have retaken the historic Old City of Aleppo, long a bastion of the opposition in Syria’s former industrial capital.
The army and allied forces hold more than 75% of east Aleppo, a rebel bastion since 2012, three weeks into their operation to capture all of the country’s second city. Assad’s forces are the closest they have ever been to seizing the entire city after a brutal, weeks-long campaign during which hundreds of civilians have died in the city’s besieged east, where a quarter of a million people were living without functioning hospitals and with dwindling food stocks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels had withdrawn from the last parts of the Old City under their control overnight after the army seized the neighbouring districts of Bab al-Hadid and Aqyul. “Rebels were forced to withdraw from the Old City neighbourhoods of Aleppo for fear of being besieged,” the UK-based monitor said. Rebel fighters withdrew overnight from the Old City, abandoning it over fears of being cut off by the soldiers and Iranian-backed militias spearheading the regime assault.
Rebel groups on Wednesday called for an immediate five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians to other opposition-held territory in the northern province. The initiative was approved by all factions in the city, a representative from one group told AFP. The rebels called for a five-day ceasefire deal that would allow the evacuation of wounded civilians and offer a path out of the city to residents who wish to leave, amid conflicting reports of divisions within opposition ranks on whether to withdraw from Aleppo or commit to a last stand.
The initiative calls for an “immediate five-day humanitarian ceasefire” as well as the UN-supervised evacuation of people requiring urgent medical care. It also calls for “the evacuation of civilians who wish to leave besieged east Aleppo to the northern Aleppo province countryside”, where rebels still hold pockets of territory. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring network, said pro-government forces were carrying out clearing operations in the Old City and the area surrounding the historic Umayyad mosque, the latest in a rapid ground advance that has seen more than two-thirds of east Aleppo fall into regime hands.
It rules out the evacuation of civilians to neighbouring Idlib province, where many civilians and surrendering rebels have taken refuge after leaving territory recaptured by the government elsewhere in the country. “Idlib province is no longer a safe area because of Russian and regime bombardment,” it said. Meanwhile, civilians continue to suffer under the onslaught, with hundreds more displaced by fighting that has already driven thousands out of their homes in recent weeks.
The initiative makes no mention of the fate of the rebels remaining in the city, who have said previously they will not evacuate. Instead, it calls for “negotiations on the future of the city” to begin after the “easing of the humanitarian situation in east Aleppo”. “We are completely paralysed and cannot treat anyone,” said one doctor in the besieged east. “We are suffering what we have to suffer under this vicious campaign and this extermination and invasion.”
The army has made steady gains since it began its latest push to recapture east Aleppo. It now controls all the areas east of the historic citadel, and parts of the Marjeh neighbourhood, the Observatory said. Overnight, the army carried out heavy shelling of the Zabdiya neighbourhood and other territory still under rebel control in the south-east of the city. An aerial bombing campaign by Russia and the Assad regime has destroyed all of east Aleppo’s hospitals over the last two months, after years of being regular warplane targets.
The Observatory said at least 15 people, including a child, had been killed by government fire in east Aleppo on Tuesday. Three children were among 11 people killed by rebel fire on government-held areas of the city. “The civilians are worried and horrified, every day people are getting displaced from one street to the next,” the doctor added.
At least 80,000 people have already fled east Aleppo, the Observatory said. The figure included residents who sought refuge in the government-held west, and a Kurdish-controlled enclave between the two sectors. The rebels’ top military council in the city called on Wednesday for a five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of the wounded, in a sign of the withering resistance to the regime campaign.
But it does not include others who have fled south to remaining rebel-held territory, Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory’s chief, said. “We, the revolutionary armed factions in besieged Aleppo, reaffirm that we will do all we can to ensure an end to the killing of civilians and their suffering in Aleppo city,” the statement said.
East Aleppo fell to rebels in 2012 and has been under government siege since mid-July, with international aid now exhausted and food supplies limited. More than 250,000 civilians were estimated to be in east Aleppo before the latest government offensive began in mid-November. The opposition demanded a five-day ceasefire that would also evacuate people in critical condition from the city, allow civilians to leave the besieged districts to the countryside north of Aleppo, and negotiations on the future of the city once the severity of the onslaught had subsided.
For months the opposition in east Aleppo, which in 2014 achieved victory over Islamic State and removed them from the city, had pledged to remain indefinitely.
Now the call for a ceasefire and negotiations appear to signal that at least some rebel factions are contemplating abandoning the city.
It is unclear if Assad and his backers are interested in a ceasefire deal, as his forces close in on the remaining opposition-held districts of Aleppo, which has been divided since 2012. Earlier this week both Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, and Russian officials have repeated the assertion that remaining rebels in the city are “terrorists,” a catch-all term for the opposition.
Aleppo has long been seen as a bellwether of the direction of the war, now in its sixth year. A regime victory there would be a powerful blow to the rebellion against Assad’s rule.