BEIRUT
- Renewed airstrikes killed at least 20 civilians as they fled
government advances in Syria’s besieged eastern part of Aleppo Tuesday,
opposition groups reported as troops continued to target the enclave
controlled …
BEIRUT - Renewed airstrikes killed at least 20 civilians as they fled government advances in Syria’s besieged eastern part of Aleppo
Tuesday, opposition groups reported as troops continued to target the
enclave controlled by rebel groups. The United Nations said up to 16,000
people have already been displaced in recent days of fighting.
A
senior military official in Damascus put the number of people fleeing
the opposition-controlled area Tuesday alone at around 20,000, saying
his government has put security measures in place to vet those leaving
to ensure no fighters are among them and no violence takes place.
The
official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in
line with regulations, denied any arbitrary detentions or revenge
attacks took place during the influx of displaced, dismissing such
reports as a distraction from his troops’ swift success in penetrating
rebel defenses.
The U.N. estimates that 275,000 residents are trapped in the
area that has been under tight siege and heavy bombardment since July.
Many residents and rights groups have expressed fear of revenge or
retaliation attacks during the dramatic government advances that have
cleaved the territory held by opposition fighters since 2012.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that three months of non-stop shelling and bombing finally
paid off for Syria’s army, its allies and its Russian backers. Troops
punched into rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the weekend and now control
40 percent of the territory once held by the opposition.
On
Monday, regime and Russian soldiers, who for weeks have been attacking
their homes, instead offered the refugees bus transport away from
danger, and desperately needed food.
Fatima Akil says she hasn’t eaten for three days -- not even bread.
Another woman fled with her dead mother in a wheelchair.
“My mother died of hunger,” the woman said. “We’ve had very little to eat or drink for five months.”
France
called for an urgent Security Council meeting to discuss the situation
in Aleppo, where ferocious fighting continued as government forces
closed in and sought to break down rebel defenses in the deeply divided
city, once Syria’s thriving commercial center.
Government forces pushed their way into a new neighborhood on
the edge of the rebel-held areas to the east, near the Aleppo airport
road, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based Observatory and government allied media reported
pro-government troops were also battling opposition fighters on the
western edge of government-controlled Aleppo, seeking to secure the
areas and repel opposition fighters from them.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that “half” of eastern Aleppo has been “liberated.”
The
Syrian Civil Defense, a team of first responders also known as the
White Helmets, said airstrikes hit a group of civilians fleeing to Bab
al-Nairab district from government advances in the north, killing 25.
The
activist-operated Halab News Network posted footage of the aftermath of
the airstrikes, saying at least 20 from three different families were
killed. The footage showed body parts strewn along a road full of
debris, and families grieving over the corpses of their relatives as
rescue workers attended to them. At one point, a warplane roamed
overhead.
The Observatory put the death toll at 10, but said it was likely to rise, as dozens were wounded and missing.
In swift and dramatic advances,
Syrian government and allied troops pressed their way into northern
parts of opposition-held eastern Aleppo in the last couple of days,
setting off a wave of panic and flight from the besieged enclave. Many
of the fleeing civilians headed to government and Kurdish-controlled
areas while others were driven deeper into the remaining rebel-held
zones.
The U.N. Humanitarian Chief Stephen O’Brien said he was
“extremely concerned” about the fate of civilians, saying new
displacements are likely. He called the situation in Aleppo “deeply
alarming and chilling.”
“There are no functioning hospitals left,
and official food stocks are practically finished in eastern Aleppo,”
O’Brien said in a statement. “It is likely that thousands more will have
no choice but to flee should fighting continue to spread and intensify
over the coming days.”
Residents of the besieged, eastern part of
Aleppo reached by telephone reported thousands of civilians have moved
to its southern district, cramming into alleyways and empty or deserted
buildings.
Farida, a gynecologist who goes by her first name only
for fear of reprisals by the government, said the situation has become
“unbearable” in eastern Aleppo. “Many people are escaping to government
areas,” she said, rushing back to her patient in labor, in one of the
few functioning clinics in the enclave.
Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher who has remained in rebel-held
Aleppo, said many of the displaced have squatted in his nearly empty
apartment building. Alhamdo said 11 empty apartments in his building
were already occupied by the newly displaced, many of them women.
“They
are not safer from airstrikes, but are at least seeking refuge from the
government gangs,” said Alhamdo. He said many of the fleeing civilians
fear revenge attacks, amid reports of arrests from people living in
government-held areas.
“Those (fleeing) have escaped death
miraculously,” he told AP from Aleppo, where airstrikes and shelling
continued. “They called it a death trip.”
Amnesty International
said it has received reports of Syrian security forces detaining men in
Aleppo areas recaptured by the government. The London-based human rights
group warned of the potential for revenge attacks, arbitrary detention
and torture against people formerly living under opposition control. The
reports could not be independently confirmed.
The senior military
official said the “human flood” of the displaced from eastern Aleppo
requires organization and precision to provide security those fleeing
and also to ensure no “sleeper cells” or suicide attackers were among
them. He said the government is currently assessing where to relocate
the thousands of displaced, including in areas recently captured from
the rebels.
The U.N.’s O’Brien said civilians in western
government-held Aleppo have also come under indiscriminate shelling by
opposition groups - violence that has displaced about 20,000 people in
recent weeks.
“The parties to the conflict in Syria have shown
time and again that they are willing to take any action to secure
military advantage even if it means killing, maiming or starving
civilians into submission in the process,” O’Brien said.
No aid
has gone into eastern districts of Aleppo since July, while punishing
aerial bombings have been hitting hospitals and infrastructure. A brief
breach by the rebels lasted nearly two weeks amid fighting around the
area.
On Tuesday, Baraa al-Shami, a spokesman for the opposition
fighting group al-Jabha al-Shamia, said opposition fighters are clashing
with government forces on the edge of the Sakhour neighborhood from
which they were repelled Monday.
“The rebels are prepared and they
have organized new defense lines because of the new situation on the
ground. Military work is primarily defense but we are working on
offensives,” al-Shami said. He added that there was intense government
bombing of nearby al-Shaar neighborhood, which houses a number of the
now defunct Aleppo hospitals.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc
Ayrault called for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting to try to
stop the fighting in Aleppo and bring in humanitarian aid.
France has supported Syrian opposition groups resisting Assad’s Russian-backed forces.
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