Civilians await evacuation from Syria's besieged Aleppo

By Selen Temizer, Halit Suleiman and Levent Tok

ALEPPO, Syria (AA) – Civilians in besieged eastern parts of Aleppo are impatiently waiting to vacate the city amid persistent attacks by the Assad regime and allied militias backed by Iran, according to local sources.

On Wednesday, armed Syrian opposition groups lost control of eastern Aleppo’s Bab al-Nairab and Marja districts to regime forces.

Thousands of local families are now waiting to leave eastern Aleppo for relatively safer areas.

"No one can enter parts of the city that have been targeted by the regime," Rafik Abu Samir, a resident of Aleppo’s nearby Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, told Anadolu Agency.

"People are trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings and local civil defense teams can’t reach them," he said.

Lamenting the regime’s recent military gains in Aleppo, Abu Samir said: "We fear more killing. We can’t trust the regime or the Russians… We only ask for international guarantees allowing for the safe exit of civilians [from the city]."

Alaa Sherif, another Aleppo resident, told Anadolu Agency: "We can’t wait any longer. Winter is upon us and children are the most affected."

"Local civil defense teams can no longer protect anyone," Abu Faruk, another Aleppo resident (who declined to give his full name due to security concerns), said.

"Is there no solution? People are dying here," he told Anadolu Agency.

On Wednesday, Syrian opposition leaders issued a joint statement in which they called for a five-day cessation of hostilities.

On the same day, the U.S., France, Germany, Canada, Italy and the U.K. called on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his allies -- namely Russia and Iran -- to implement an immediate "humanitarian ceasefire".

Since mid-November, more than 925 civilians have been killed -- and some 2,500 injured -- by regime attacks on opposition-held parts of Aleppo, according to local civil defense officials.

The fierce bombardments have forced most of the city’s hospitals to halt operations, while most academic activities have been indefinitely suspended.

The recent escalation comes amid attempts by the Russia-backed Assad regime to reestablish control over parts of Aleppo captured four years ago by armed opposition groups.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which had erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.