Syria’s military said it will reduce airstrikes and artillery fire on rebel-controlled areas in the eastern districts of Aleppo to allow civilians to evacuate safely.
The announcement, published by the state-run news agency SANA on Wednesday, said the decision follows “the success of our armed forces in Aleppo” cutting off and destroying all “terrorist supply routes” and “vital terrorist bases.”
Syria’s military has precise information on the location of armed rebels and their warehouses in Aleppo’s eastern districts, according to the SANA report.
The military, noting that supply routes have been cut off, is asking rebels to disarm, SANA reported.
Rebel-held districts of Aleppo have suffered intense aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russian warplanes for more than a week, while the Assad regime prepares to take the northern city.
More than 450 people have been killed since a US-Russia brokered ceasefire collapsed September 22, according to Adham Sahloul, spokesman for the Syrian American Medical Society.
Syrian government war jets have targeted gathering places such as markets, hospitals and mosques for days, the Aleppo Media Center activist has told CNN.
Many in the city’s eastern districts lack access to clean water after infrastructure damage from shelling and bombing, Sahloul said last weekend.
The recent assault on rebel-held areas of the city involved some of the worst violence since the start of the war in 2011.