Destruction in the Al-Shaar neighborhood after regime forces took control of the area in the eastern part of the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday. (AFP)
ALEPPO: Opposition fighters in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians Wednesday after losing more than three quarters of their territory including the Old City to a regime army offensive.
In the face of a blistering assault, the opposition fighters were reported to have retreated Wednesday from all of Aleppo’s Old City, the latest in a string of territorial losses.
After three weeks of heavy fighting, regime forces appeared closer than ever to retaking all of Aleppo and winning their most important victory yet in the civil war that began in 2011.
Opposition fighters have rejected calls to withdraw from the city, which had been divided between government and opposition forces since 2012, but on Wednesday issued a joint statement calling for an “immediate five-day humanitarian cease-fire.”
The statement, which opposition representatives told AFP had been approved by all armed opposition factions in the city, called for “the evacuation of civilians who wish to leave” the city’s east to opposition territory in northern Aleppo province.
The cease-fire offer came after opposition forces retreated from their last positions in Aleppo’s Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its medieval buildings and souk. After seizing areas east of the Old City on Tuesday — including the large and strategic Shaar neighborhood — the army and allied forces were in control of 75 percent of the territory previously held by the opposition in east Aleppo, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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Categories: Arab World, Syria