Rebels in Aleppo have told the United States they will not leave
their besieged enclave in the city 1after Moscow called for talks with
Washington over their withdrawal, signaling they will fight on even as
their top commander was wounded.
A Syrian
military source said the army aimed to take full control of Aleppo
within weeks, after seizing swathes of the city's rebel-held east in an
advance poised to deal a major blow to the rebellion against President
Bashar al-Assad.
With more than 30,000
people uprooted by the latest fighting, residents who fled eastern
Aleppo for government-held areas early in the war began returning to the
Hanano district recently captured from the rebels to inspect their
homes.
Under relentless attack, the rebels may
have no choice but to negotiate a withdrawal from their shrinking,
besieged enclave in eastern Aleppo, where tens of thousands of civilians
are thought to be sheltering.
Earlier
today, the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said that Eastern
Aleppo may fall into the hands of Syrian government forces by the end of
the year, while expressing his wish to avoid “a terrible battle” during
a conference in Rome.
His comments
coincide with statements Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made on
the US-Russian talks to ensure the withdrawal of all opposition forces
from Eastern Aleppo. The Syrian opposition considers this a retreat from
what had been agreed upon in talks with the Russians, under the
auspices of Turkey.
No comments:
Post a Comment