Aleppo humanitarian pause ‘extended’
October 20, 2016, 4:32 pm

Fighting in and around Aleppo has not subsided some groups said on Thursday, barring many civilians from leaving the city [Xinhua]

The Russian and Syrian air forces had unilaterally halted airstrikes on Aleppo for an 11-hour ceasefire that began on Thursday morning, the Russian military said.

But within minutes of the humanitarian pause taking effect, Russian media quoting military sources reported that six mortar shells fell on the Bustan Al Qasr district of east Aleppo as civilians were trying to flee the war-ravaged city.

Islamist rebels holed up in the city have not accepted the temporary ceasefire.

But other ‘corridors’ in and out of the city remained safe, the Russian military said. Some rights groups say that only a few civilian families managed to leave the city.

The humanitarian pause, which expires in a few hours, is designed to bring much-needed relief to the besieged city which has been under attack for months.

Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy said that all eight corridors in Aleppo will be open, six of which are for civilians and humanitarian aid deliveries.

“It will not be possible to separate terrorists from civilians under bombardments,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a briefing after the Normandy Four meeting in Berlin.

Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Wednesday primarily to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Earlier that day, senior US and Russian officials held talks in order to reach an agreement on how to separate Al Qaeda-linked militants from rebel fighters in the besieged Syrian city.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu called on the US and its Persian Gulf allies to persuade ‘moderate’ rebels in Aleppo to leave the city.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies