Russia, Syria Stop Bombing Aleppo for Humanitarian Pause

Russia and Syria stopped bombing Aleppo on Tuesday two days ahead of a humanitarian pause, BBC News reported.

“The early halting of airstrikes is necessary to declare a ‘humanitarian pause.’ It will … guarantee a safe exit of civilians through six corridors and prepare for the evacuation of the ill and the wounded from the eastern part of Aleppo,” said Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu.

Russia announced an eight-hour cease-fire to begin on Thursday in Aleppo as a gesture to reopen talks on Syria. At least 430 people have been killed in Syrian and Russian airstrikes on rebel-held parts of Aleppo since a Russian- and U.S.-brokered cease-fire crumbled last month, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The U.S. and the U.K. rejected the eight-hour cease-fire offer, the Guardian reported, saying a serious cease-fire would have to last at least 48 hours. U.N. agencies also criticized the humanitarian pause on Thursday, saying safe evacuation would require at least 12 hours. An estimated 275,000 people still live in besieged eastern Aleppo.

“We would welcome any pause in the fighting, but there is a need for a longer pause in order to get the aid in,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Syrian rebels rejected a withdrawal from Aleppo, Reuters reported, saying they would not surrender.

Geneva: U.S. and Allies Meet to Discuss Separating Opposition Forces

The U.S. and its European and Middle Eastern allies are working toward a new cease-fire in Syria, Reuters reported.

Experts from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France, Turkey and Jordan met in Geneva on Tuesday to create a “working group to see how we could separate (former al-Qaida affiliate) Nusra from the moderate opposition. The first meeting is today in Geneva,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.

Russia will reportedly join the talks on Wednesday. Sergei Shoigu told Russia’s state-run Rossiya 24 that military experts would meet in Geneva to work on separating “terrorists” from Syria’s opposition forces.

Russia is a primary backer of the Syrian government. The U.S., Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia back opposition forces fighting the government. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the former al-Qaida affiliate in Syria, is also fighting the Syrian government, and has intermingled with other rebel groups.

Some 900 People Fleeing Mosul Cross Border Into Syria

Nearly 900 people fleeing the Iraqi city of Mosul have crossed the border into Syria since Monday, BBC News reported.

The Iraqi government on Monday launched its offensive against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Mosul, where nearly 1.5 million people live, 5,000 of them militants belonging to the extremist group.

More than 900 people fled the city and are now in a refugee camp in Syria, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

There are fears that residents may be used as human shields by ISIS, or targeted with chemical weapons. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, U.S. president Barack Obama said it was important to help Mosul’s residents leave safely.

“If we aren’t successful in helping ordinary people as they’re fleeing Isil (ISIS), then that makes us vulnerable to seeing Isil return,” he said.

Recommended Reads:

• The Nation: The Debate Over Syria Has Reached a Dead End
• The New Yorker: ISIS on the Run
• BBC: Syria First Lady Asma al-Assad ‘Rejected Offer of Asylum’
• The Washington Post: Russian Air Defense Raises Stakes of U.S. Confrontation in Syria
• Foreign Affairs: The Rojava Model: How Syria’s Kurds Govern