Aleppo Humanitarian Truce Extended for 24 Hours

Local Editor

Russian Defense Ministry announced that the humanitarian pause in Aleppo was extended for another 24 hours.

According to RT website, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that the humanitarian pause in Aleppo which came into force at 8:00 am on Thursday will be extended for another 24 hours, adding that extending the pause came after the Syrian Arab Republic endorsed it.

At 08:00 am on Thursday morning, a humanitarian pause started to evacuate civilians from the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo as eight humanitarian corridors were opened to evacuate the citizens.

Two among the corridors are for the gunmen, one of which leads to the Syrian-Turkish border while the other is from Sowq al-Hai to Idleb.

Helicopters of the Syrian Army threw hundreds of thousands of publications on the eastern neighborhoods showing the locations of the humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians, calling upon those involved in carrying up weapons to seize the opportunity and have their legal files settled.

Meanwhile, Syrian state media revealed that militants are preventing people from leaving the city's opposition-held sector.

And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said militants were using "threats, blackmail and brute force" to prevent civilians and other militants from evacuating.

The United Nations had hoped to use the truce to evacuate injured people from Aleppo, and possibly deliver aid.

But Friday afternoon, a spokesman said the operation had been delayed because of security concerns.

"Medical evacuations of sick and injured could unfortunately not begin this morning as planned because the necessary conditions were not in place," said Jens Laerke of the United Nations humanitarian office OCHA.

David Swanson, an OCHA spokesman in Turkey's Gaziantep, said a four-day plan had been drawn up to begin with two days of evacuations to west Aleppo, militant-held Idlib or Turkey.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team