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.
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.
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 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 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.
World leaders on Wednesday condemned Russia over its role in the humanitarian disaster “taking place before our very eyes� in Aleppo.
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.
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.
“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.�
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 civilians are worried and horrified, every day people are getting displaced from one street to the next,� the doctor added.
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.
“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.
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.