Shelling and mortar fire pounded rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo overnight into Friday, witnesses said, despite a Russian claim that the Syrian army had halted all military activity in the war-torn city.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that the Syrian army had stopped fighting and was focusing its efforts on the “largest ever evacuation of eastern Aleppo residents” from the besieged area.
But the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a monitoring group, said heavy Syrian army shelling had hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo overnight.
A resident and activist in the rebel-held area of Monther Etaky told CNN: “Since the announcement by Lavrov, the shelling didn’t stop or reduce. I am talking to you right now and there are two helicopters in the sky.”
A CNN team in Aleppo said there had been intermittent mortar shelling and gunfire overnight, followed by heavy clashes of gun fire, mortar fire and artillery shelling Friday morning.
The team saw big plumes of smoke over the east of the city, where opposition fighters cling on to pockets of territory despite a push by government forces that has seen most old city neighborhoods return to regime control.
Aerial attacks, chlorine bombs reported
The Syria Civil Defence volunteer group, also known as the White Helmets, tweeted that 46 people had been killed and more than 230 injured in Aleppo on Thursday, “after being targeted by 140+ aerial attacks,1200+ artillery & 3 chlorine barrel bombs.”
Many civilians remain trapped in the shrinking rebel-held area, with food, fuel and medical supplies almost exhausted and no safe route out.
Thousands more, exhausted and frail after months under siege and bombardment, have fled to the government-held west of the city as regime troops take neighborhoods held by the rebels for three or four years.
Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, reported Friday that army units had “continued their advance in eastern Aleppo and established control of a number of buildings and farms in al-Sheikh Said region,” although much of that area was previously reported to have been taken.
US-Russian talks on ending violence
Lavrov’s claim of a halt in hostilities came a day after he met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Hamburg, Germany, to discuss ways to end the bombing of Aleppo, allow safe passage for those who want to flee the city, and deliver humanitarian aid to its remaining residents.
The two met for about 45 minutes Wednesday evening in Hamburg, ahead of a two-day OSCE summit.
Plans to end the violence include a US-led initiative, floated on December 2, to guarantee safe passage of rebel forces out of the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo. Russian state news agency TASS reported that the Russian government supports the US initiative.
Lavrov and US officials are set to meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss “militants’ pullout from Aleppo,” according to Russian state media.
In an interview Thursday with Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected the offer of a humanitarian ceasefire by the rebel opposition as his army tightened the noose on the rebel-held part of Aleppo, according to Syrian state media.