Aleppo: USA reached on an agreement with
Russia to extend a ceasefire in the Aleppo province of Syria.
The expansion went into
effect on Wednesday just after midnight in Damascus (02:00 GMT), the State
Department said, noting an “overall decrease in violence” since then, despite
some continued fighting.
The Syrian army confirmed
the ceasefire, saying there would be a “regime of calm” in Aleppo for 48 hours,
Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told the UN Security Council.
The US is coordinating with
Russia to finalize monitoring efforts for the ceasefire and calls on all
parties to abide by the agreement.
The United Nations
Humanitarian Affairs chief Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council that
the killing of civilians in Aleppo “cannot and will not be forgotten”, warning
that perpetrators will be held accountable. O’Brien gave a rundown of deadly
incidents in which residential areas, medical facilities and ambulances were
targeted by government war planes and non-state shelling. “Some of these
acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” O’Brien said in New
York.
Activists and rebels said
at least 250 people have been killed in the fighting in Aleppo in the past 10
days. On Wednesday, dozens of people were killed in a day-long battle in western
Aleppo that was still going on intermittently, the UK-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights and sources on both sides said.Sources loyal to the Syrian
government gave conflicting accounts of the outcome of the battle that began
early on Tuesday in and around the Jamiat al-Zahraa area of western Aleppo.
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