Moscow says evacuation corridors are in place ahead of expected bombardment of east of Syrian city but rebels plan to stay

Syrian rebel groups in east Aleppo are planning to defy an ultimatum from Vladimir Putin to abandon the city by Friday night, insisting that promised safe passages out of besieged areas do not exist and that an imminent Russian blitz will not change the course of the war.

As the Russian carrier group expected to take part in the attack moved into their final positions in the eastern Mediterranean, opposition fighters made fresh forays into west Aleppo, the latest in a series of attempts to break a four-year siege of the rebel -held east, which is surrounded by Iranian-backed militias that support the Syrian leader.



Moscow has said that corridors for fighters and civilians will remain open until sunset on Friday, ahead of what it has warned will be a bombardment that will level what remains of east Aleppo. As the deadline drew near, however, opposition groups said they had little to fear, and could not escape even if they wanted to.



Washington and London increasingly believe that Russia will launch a devastating attack over the weekend or early next week, taking advantage of the US presidential election on 8 November and the fact that there is little military will to oppose Moscow as it takes an ever greater stake in securing the fate of Bashar al-Assad.



“In a normal situation people would be concerned by it,” said Wissam Zaraq, a teacher in the east of the city. “But right now they’re concerned about breaking the siege since the living situation and lack of supplies is so bad. I haven’t seen a single building that hasn’t been damaged in the bombardment, or a street that hasn’t been blocked by the collapse of buildings. People no longer pay attention to it.”



Residents of the city and members of opposition groups said the rebel attack on the regime-held west would prove more decisive in the fate of Aleppo than an intensified Russian bombardment. Spearheaded by jihadi groups that are dominant in parts of the Aleppo countryside, the push aims to open a supply line into the opposition-held district of Salaheddine, which could be used to bring in weapons, food and medicines.

Mohamed al-Ahmad, 29, a shopkeeper from Aleppo’s old city, said: “Russia is already bombing us. This doesn’t make us scared. It won’t be that different for us if they increase their attacks.” He said he and others would risk death or arrest if they left, but had nothing to fear from opposition groups.

“The situation is very difficult. There is no way to get out of Aleppo. Before the battle started, there was a way, but the problem is that you cross to a [Kurdish] area, and need to pay them to go to the Syrian regime-controlled area. If you have a security problem with the Syrian regime, you risk being arrested.”



Sharif al-Halabi, a spokesman for Fastaqim, one of the main rebel factions inside east Aleppo, said: “The Russians said they’re opening these corridors and the regime is advertising that it’s evacuating civilians, which is totally untrue and is simply a game they’re playing. There are no civilians who are leaving, and there aren’t even any corridors.



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“We are people who are from Aleppo, of course we will not give it up and we reject entirely the idea of leaving Aleppo because we are in the right. Aleppo is our land and we defended it and continue to defend its civilians despite the bombardment and siege.”



Russian and Syrian officials have claimed that the remaining civilian population of east Aleppo are being prevented from leaving by militants. Rebels have rejected the claim, as well as an allegation that hospitals systematically targeted by Russian and Syrian jets were used to store weapons.



Diplomats in the region said attempts to bridge a divide between Russia and the US had failed. “What is at stake is whether a chance remains to forge a genuine settlement, which can reverse Syria’s state failure,” said one senior official. “The Russians don’t have the sophistication, or the intent to do the job properly. The opposition remains undaunted by the prospect that east Aleppo might fall, arguing it is better to fight on than agree a bad deal premised on a surrender.”



Saleh Saeed, 34, an Aleppo resident, said it was “honestly beneficial for civilians to be out”.



“We are surrounded and if there are less civilians, there will be more food for the fighters. Almost all of the people here can’t leave for the regime areas, many have a family member in the FSA [the opposition Free Syria Army] or are connected to the FSA, which makes them blacklisted from the regime side.”



Mohamed el-Sheikh, 29, a member of a rebel group, addressed claims of human shields. “In reality, there is no place, nothing like this,” he said. “[Assad] doesn’t allow the UN to bring aid, and when the UN enters, they bomb them.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rebel fighters drive past burning tyres at an entrance to Aleppo on Thursday. Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images

A doctor who had treated casualties in one of Aleppo’s three functioning hospitals – and who was himself recently injured in an airstrike – said claims that weapons were being stored in medical centres were false.



“They know the truth completely, but they are closing their eyes to it and lying and lying and lying until they are believed,” he said.

In London, Boris Johnson, the UK foreign secretary, appealed to Russia to hold back from its bombing campaign in east Aleppo, describing the state of the city as an “apocalyptic horror”.

He said the Russian attack had little to do with defeating terrorism and “everything to with preserving the blood-soaked Assad regime”.

He called on Russia not to veto a UN security council resolution that condemned the Syrian government for using chemical weapons against its own people.

“We are pressing for a UN resolution to hold accountable those who use such horrific weapons in defiance of the rules of war,” said Johnson.



“If Russia chooses once again to protect Assad by casting its veto then it will be shielding someone whose forces have been found guilty over and over again by a UN investigation, which the Kremlin itself supported, of killing their own people with poison gas.

“I say that vetoing such a resolution would be unconscionable.”

Additional reporting: Saalim Rizk



