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Syrian troops in control of Aleppo's Old City after rebels withdraw Assad loyalists oust rebels from Aleppo's Old City as they call for ceasefire
(about 5 hours later)
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. Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have ousted rebel groups from Aleppo’s Old City as an increasingly battered opposition pleaded for a five day ceasefire to allow remaining civilians to be evacuated.
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 advances were the most strident of the past week and edged the fighting in Syria’s second city towards a final showdown in neighbourhoods where it all began for the besieged rebel groups four and a half years ago. Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed heavily by militias that have been instrumental in shifting his fortunes in the war, are now the closest they have ever been to seizing the entirety of east Aleppo – a city central to the fate of the war.
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. The battlefield advances came as the US, Britain, France, Italy and Canada released a statement condemning both Russia and Syria for the “humanitarian disaster taking place before our very eyes” in Aleppo. There was no immediate response from either country, both of whom had rebuffed earlier demands for a ceasefire while vowing to crush the remaining opposition and claiming that any lull would allow rebels to regroup.
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 Old City had remained a centre of gravity for the opposition since its fighters, a combination of Aleppo locals and residents of the surrounding countryside, overran security forces in July 2012. Its proximity to Syrian army positions and the ancient Citadel that stands at its heart had made it less of a target for Russian and Syrian jets that have bombed much of the rest of east Aleppo into oblivion in preparation for the ground offensive.
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. The advance, which has been led by Iraqi groups and Hezbollah from Lebanon, both backed by Iran, has laid waste to much of the Old City’s approaches and cut off opposition routes to elsewhere in the east, which has seen fierce fighting this week. Up to 75% of east Aleppo is now under the control of loyalist forces, who say they could claim the rest of the city within one week.
World leaders on Wednesday condemned Russia over its role in the humanitarian disaster “taking place before our very eyes” in Aleppo. The conquered areas are a crumbling mess of largely uninhabitable neighbourhoods of 4-6 storey apartment blocks, which have collapsed on to the roads beneath them. The damage is worst at the eastern edges of the city, from where the ground offensive was launched. Towards the centre, where the Old City and Citadel stand, destruction is less obvious, but even there, shops and homes have crumpled in the face of concussion waves from enormous explosions, as well as direct hits.
A statement in the name of US president Barack Obama, UK prime minister Theresa May, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president François Hollande, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Matteo Renzi of Italy criticised the Syrian government “and its foreign backers, especially Russia”, for attacks on civilians and obstructing humanitarian aid. As their fortunes diminished, opposition leaders again refused regime demands that they abandon Aleppo, insisting that they remain as guarantors of the safety of civilians who have stayed behind. Rebel fighters have bunkered down in the hull of what was once Syria’s industrial heartland, forming underground basements in husks of apartment blocks, and running the war by the light of car batteries.
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. “What Aleppo has witnessed in the past five months is nothing short of a war of extermination against its civilian population,” the opposition leadership said in a statement. “Hundreds of innocent young men have been detained and their future is uncertain. Women, who have been hardest hit by the realities of the siege, have been raped in despicable acts of revenge.
“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.” “Civilians should either be protected, or evacuated to a safe area, where they will not be under the mercy of Assad and his henchmen.”
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. Some rebel factions acknowledged that they were considering abandoning the city, which was at the time of its seizure meant to have been an epicentre of the push to oust Assad as leader. How to flee, if such a decision is made, remains a dilemma, with no roads open to the north or south, and the east remaining a stronghold of the forces that are attacking them. Humanitarian corridors, except two into west Aleppo, have been killing zones for the past three months, rebel groups say.
“The civilians are worried and horrified, every day people are getting displaced from one street to the next,” the doctor added. The rebellion, which started as a revolt against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, spawned by popular uprisings across the Arab world, has waned elsewhere in Syria, leading to increasing calls for a managed political settlement.
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. Civilians were being steadily bussed to regime-held west Aleppo on Wednesday, with hundreds more displaced by fighting that has already driven thousands out of their homes in recent weeks. More than 30,000 people are reported to have crossed the frontline that has separated both sides, with more than 500 military-aged men taken by Syrian troops from conquered neighbourhoods, or at checkpoints. Unicef estimated that 51% of the recent refugees were children.
“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. Aid groups also backed ceasefire calls. The International Rescue Committee said: “Medical evacuations would be a lifeline for the 400 gravely ill and seriously injured people in urgent need of treatment. The UN must be allowed to oversee a ceasefire that also guarantees the first food and medicine deliveries to enter east Aleppo since it was besieged in July, as well as fresh staff to relieve the small number of doctors and nurses providing medical care of a quarter of million people. There must not be any military preconditions attached.”
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. East Aleppo’s few remaining physicians said they can no longer treat patients. A blitz by Russia and the Assad regime has destroyed all of east Aleppo’s hospitals over the last two months, when systematic attacks on the city’s healthcare system intensified.
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. The latest offensive seized the M10 hospital in the Sakhour neighbourhood of the east, which had been heavily damaged by airstrikes. Staff had managed to use some rooms for basic treatment in between attacks, but have not been able to perform complex surgeries for much of the past month.
Now the call for a ceasefire and negotiations appear to signal that at least some rebel factions are contemplating abandoning the city. “We are completely paralysed and cannot treat anyone,” said one doctor. “We are suffering what we have to suffer under this vicious campaign and this extermination and invasion. The civilians are worried and horrified, everyday people are getting displaced from one street to the next.”
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’s unrelenting misery has exposed the powerlessness of the international community to stop the suffering and Monday’s statement marked a rare attempt by global leaders to collectively shift debate about the conflict outside of the UN Security Council, where permanent members Russia and China have blocked measures aimed at Assad over the past five years.
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.