Aleppo City Quiet on Third Day of Ceasefire
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Calm prevailed across the divided Syrian city of Aleppo Saturday, the third day of a unilateral ceasefire announced by Russia, but medical evacuations and aid deliveries have yet to take place, activists said.
No Syrian or Russian airstrikes on the eastern rebel-held side of Aleppo, Syria's most populous city before the war, have been reported since Russia began the pause in hostilities Thursday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
But rebels have said they cannot accept the ceasefire, which they say does nothing to alleviate the situation of those who choose to remain in rebel-held Aleppo, and believe it is part of a government policy to purge cities of political opponents.
The Syrian army and Russia have called on residents and rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo to leave the city through designated corridors and depart for other insurgent-held districts under a promise of safe travel, but very few rebels or civilians appear to have left.
"Nobody has left through the corridors. The small number of people who tried to leave were faced with shelling around the (corridor area) and could not leave," said Zakaria Malahifji, a rebel official with the Fastaqim group, which is present in the city.
Malahifji said shelling and clashes continued at normal levels in parts of the city, Reuters reported.
Syrian state media says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving east Aleppo. Pro-government channels broadcast footage of ambulances and green buses parked at empty reception points in government Aleppo, said to be waiting for civilians and fighters from the city's east.
The United Nations had hoped that the ceasefires would allow medical evacuations from the city, but said a lack of security guarantees and facilitation were preventing aid workers taking advantage of the pause in bombing.
