Rebels call for truce as Aleppo losses mount

Rebels in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians yesterday after losing more territory including the Old City to a Syrian army offensive.
Heavy fighting in the city stoked mounting international concern, with six Western powers urging a ceasefire and UN chief Ban Ki-moon describing the plight of civilians as “heartbreaking”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was to hold fresh talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Hamburg, Germany, later in the day on efforts to halt the fighting.
A blistering new offensive launched last month has seen President Bashar al-Assad’s forces move closer than ever to retaking all of Aleppo and winning their most important victory yet in the civil war that began in 2011.
Rebel fighters, who took control of east Aleppo in 2012, have suffered a string of defeats in recent days, losing about 80% of their former territory in the city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Regime forces scored another important victory yesterday when the rebels retreated from the Old City, the historic heart of Aleppo, said the Observatory, a Britain-based monitor.
Increasingly cornered in a sliver of territory in the city’s southeast, rebel factions issued a joint statement calling for an “immediate five-day humanitarian ceasefire”.
The statement also called for “the evacuation of civilians who wish to leave” the city’s east to rebel territory in northern Aleppo province.
Opposition fighters have rejected talk of leaving Aleppo, however, and Syria’s government has said it will not agree to any ceasefire without a full rebel withdrawal.
The army extended its advances yesterday afternoon, with state media saying government troops had taken control of the Bab al-Nayrab, Al-Maadi and Salhin neighbourhoods.
Remaining rebel-held districts were coming under heavy bombardment, witnesses in the area said.
The statement from the six Western powers - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States - said a humanitarian disaster was “taking place before our very eyes” in Aleppo.
“The urgent need now is for an immediate ceasefire to allow the United Nations to get humanitarian assistance to people in eastern Aleppo,” the statement said.
It lashed out at the regime in Damascus and its “foreign backers, especially Russia,” accusing them of blocking emergency help.
Moscow is a key Assad ally and launched an air war in support of his forces last year, while Washington and other Western nations have supported rebel forces.
UN chief Ban also appealed for a ceasefire, saying in Vienna: “What we have seen most recently in eastern Aleppo, that is really heartbreaking.”
Moscow and Washington have traded blame this week over a series of stalled efforts to bring about a ceasefire.
The assault has prompted a mass exodus of east Aleppo residents and the Observatory said yesterday that at least 80,000 had now fled their homes.
It said the figure included residents who had sought refuge in the government-held west of the city and a Kurdish-controlled enclave, but not those who fled to remaining rebel territory.
Assad’s government has been urging civilians to leave east Aleppo for months and accused the rebels of holding residents hostage.
Overnight, Syrian soldiers helped residents evacuate newly recaptured areas near the Old City.
Inside one bus, evacuees could be seen huddling together, a baby wrapped in heavy blankets fast asleep at his mother’s feet as she sat waiting for the vehicle to leave.