Shattered Aleppo falls silent

Members of the Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, search for victims amid the rubble of a destroyed building following reported air strikes in the rebel-held Qatarji neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, on Monday. (Photo: AFP)

Moscow announced on Tuesday that Russian and Syrian air forces have stopped bombing Aleppo ahead of a brief truce, a move the Kremlin said showed goodwill” as it faces mounting criticism for backing a brutal regime offensive.

Russia had said on Monday there would be an eight-hour “humanitarian pause” in the battered city on Thursday, a move welcomed by the United Nations and the European Union, which nevertheless said the ceasefire needed to be longer to allow the delivery of aid.

The UN said on Tuesday it was waiting for safety assurances from all sides before going in with “critical humanitarian assistance” for Aleppo’s desperate population.

The West has voiced increasing alarm at the situation in Aleppo, saying the ferocious Russian-backed onslaught on the rebel-held east could amount to a war crime.

“Strikes in the Aleppo region by the Russian and Syrian air forces are stopping today starting at 10.00 am,” Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised briefing, adding that the measure was “necessary” to pave way for the truce.

“This guarantees the security of civilians’ exit through six corridors and prepares the evacuation of the sick and injured from eastern Aleppo,” he said, adding that it would also guarantee safe passage for armed rebels to leave eastern Aleppo.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hailed the move as a “manifestation of goodwill” and denied it was meant to assuage Western critics who have accused Moscow of perpetrating potential war crimes in Syria’s second city. “This is an obvious continuation of Russian efforts, on the one hand, to fight terrorists in Syria, and on the other, to unblock the situation in Aleppo,” Peskov said. “It is exclusively a manifestation of goodwill by the Russian military.”

Raids in the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo have stopped since the Russian announcement, but air strikes are still being conducted in the broader Aleppo region, the Britain-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

Over 250,000 people are under government siege in the city that was once Syria’s thriving commercial hub.

Tuesday’s halt in bombing came just hours after Russian warplanes pounded Aleppo’s rebel-held districts, killing a couple and their three children, the Observatory said. On Monday, dozens of civilians including 12 members of the same family were killed in strikes against Alepp. The brutal government offensive against eastern Aleppo — which has destroyed hospitals and other civilian infrastructure — has plunged Syria into some of the worst violence since March 2011.

“The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, schools and essential infrastructure, use of barrel and cluster bombs, chemical weapons, constitute a catastrophic escalation of the conflict...And may amount to war crimes,” EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg said.