Lavrov: Syrian suspends military operations in Aleppo

ANKARA (AA) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on late Thursday that the Syrian army has temporarily suspended its military operations in northwestern city of Aleppo.

According to Russian media outlets, Lavrov's remarks came on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Hamburg, Germany.

"Today, the operations in the eastern part of Aleppo were suspended for the evacuation of the civilians," said Lavrov.
"This is the largest operation conducted for evacuation of the civilians until now. It's a convoy of 8,000 people, five kilometers long," said the Russian minister.
Located some 40 kilometers from the Turkish border, Aleppo is Syria’s second largest city after capital Damascus.

Since mid-November, the regime and its allies have stepped up their attacks on opposition-held parts of Aleppo, reportedly causing hundreds of civilian deaths and thousands of injuries.

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

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.