BEIRUT (AP) – The Syrian government on Friday opened a new corridor for rebels and civilians who want to leave the besieged eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo, a move that’s part of a Russia-announced pause in the fighting and which the rebels in the city have already dismissed.
Residents in eastern Aleppo have said many won’t go since there are no guarantees that the evacuees won’t be arrested by government forces.
Even as the corridor opened along Aleppo’s main artery to the north, the Castello Road, intense clashes and shelling erupted in the Jobar neighborhood in the capital of Damascus, activists and residents said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were casualties both among the rebels and the government forces.
The pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV aired live footage from the Castello Road showing bulldozers that had opened the road. Buses and ambulances were parked by the roadside, waiting to take evacuees.
The pause in Aleppo fighting was announced by Russia to allow for the evacuation of civilians and fighters, as well as the wounded. Rebels have rejected the offer, saying it isn’t serious.