Syria Daily: Talk — But No Sign — of Aleppo Ceasefire and Evacuations

PHOTO: Men push children and possessions on a cart in eastern Aleppo city, November 29, 2016

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• Report: Assad Regime Staged “Terrorist” Bombings From December 2011

There was discussion on multiple fronts on Thursday of evacuations from opposition-held districts of eastern Aleppo, but no sign of a halt to the Russian-regime onslaught against about 240,000 people still in those parts of Syria’s largest city.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said about 30,000 people have left the area since a surge by pro-Assad forces last Saturday. The UN’s humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said that, by Wedensday, about 18,000 people had been registered entering regime-controlled districts and about 8,500 in mainly-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud.

Since last weekend, foreign forces — Iranian troops, Hezbollah, and Iraqi and Palestinian militias — as well as Syrian military and paramilitary units have taken about 1/3 of the opposition part of eastern Aleppo.

Russian and regime bombing and shelling, which has killed well over 1,200 civilians since September 19, has continued. Civilians fleeing areas of ground fighting have not been spared: in the latest incident, 45 were killed on Wednesday by regime shells.

See Syria Daily, Dec 1: Fleeing Civilians in East Aleppo Cut Down by Regime Shelling

Syria and Russia have refused a UN request for a ceasefire to evacuate 400 sick and wounded people, but Egeland said on Thursday that Moscow will discuss the establishment of four “humanitarian corridors”.

The UN official asserted, “A humanitarian corridor can work if all the armed actors respect it.”

Russia and the Assad regime have repeatedly proclaimed the existence of such corridors since late July, but there has been little sign of any effective, safe path to leave the opposition areas as the Russian-regime aerial and ground assault continued. Meanwhile, pro-Assad forces enabled by the Russian airstrikes re-imposed a siege on eastern Aleppo in late August, cutting off all food and supplies.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu told a joint news conference in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Alanya that they had discussed a ceasefire. However, Lavrov added that Russia would continue military operations in eastern Aleppo to “rescue” it from “terrorists”.

A senior Red Cross official said the organization is in talks with the Assad regime to reach people being screened or detained after leaving eastern Aleppo, but did not report any progress.

Friends and families, as well as residents of the area, have said that hundreds of men have been detained by the advancing pro-Assad forces.

Report: Assad Regime Staged “Terrorist” Bombings From December 2011

Drawing on interviews with former regime officials, journalist Roy Gutman reports that the Assad regime staged a series of deadly bombings from December 2011 and blamed them on “terrorists”.

Gutman’s sources include General Awad Ali, who led criminal investigations in Damascus. The general said that he was not blocked from investigating the scenes of the bombings, which were timed to coincide with the arrival of delegations of diplomats, journalists, or prominent figures.

Another former regime officer said advance notice was always given of the likely targets. He echoed Ali’s statement that the regime military prevented any investigation of the aftermath of the attacks.

However, Ali said that his officers managed to establish a regime link in a July 2013 attack on the State Security Building that reportedly killed 44 people. The pickup truck used in the explosion was sold by a member of the security apparatus to an unknown persondays before the attack, and it entered the building through an underground drive used only by lower-ranking employees.