50,000 pour out of east Aleppo as Syrian army advances
Civilians flee rebel-held east, battered by air strikes and heavy artillery fire
ALEPPO: More than 50,000 Syrians have joined a growing exodus of terrified civilians from east Aleppo, a monitor said Wednesday, as the UN Security Council was set for emergency talks on fighting in the city.
As government forces pressed an assault in the divided city, artillery fire killed at least 26 civilians in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
Civilians have poured out of the besieged rebel-held east, battered by air strikes and heavy artillery fire by advancing regime forces.
A correspondent in a southeastern district described artillery shells “coming down like rain” on Wednesday.
After one mortar attack, the motionless body of a girl was left crumpled in the street, her arm severed and her head pierced by a sliver of shrapnel. Rescue volunteers carried her body away on a motorcycle.
Army forces and allied fighters have seized a third of the rebel-held east of Aleppo since they began an operation to recapture all of the battered second city just over a fortnight ago.
They now fully control the city’s northeast and pressed their offensive on Aleppo’s southeastern edges, advancing in the Shaikh Saeed district, according to state news agency SANA.
The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest blow for Syria’s opposition since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, before spiralling into a civil war.
More than 50,000 people have fled Aleppo’s rebel-held districts, the Observatory said, including at least 20,000 to government-held territory and another 30,000 to Kurdish-controlled districts.
Many others have travelled south into the remaining territory held by rebels.
Another correspondent near a temporary government-run shelter on the edge of Aleppo saw dozens of displaced residents huddled on the back of pick-up trucks under the pounding rain.
Hundreds also massed in the newly recaptured neighbourhood of Jabal Badro to board government buses heading to west Aleppo.
“The situation of those fleeing is desperate,” said Pawel Krzysiek, head of communications for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria.
Syria’s Red Crescent is offering assistance in government-held areas, but does not yet have access to east Aleppo.
The UN has for months sought access to the east, but a plan it presented earlier this month to deliver aid has yet to be approved by the government.
The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting later on the situation, receiving a briefing from a UN humanitarian official and the UN’s peace envoy Staffan de Mistura.
British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped the meeting could lead to “an end to the carnage, particularly in Aleppo”.
“I would urge all those with responsibility to think of what they can do to bring peace, stop the bombardment, stop the killing of innocent civilians and get to the negotiating table,” he said after meeting his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia.
Syria’s opposition National Coalition said it was working with France on a draft UN resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, though regime ally Russia was likely to veto such a proposal.
Civilians numbering 26, including seven children were killed in government artillery fire on the Jubb al-Qubbeh district in east Aleppo, the Observatory said.