Russia and a war monitor said the Syrian army had begun to withdraw from a road into Aleppo on Thursday, a prerequisite for pressing ahead with international peacemaking efforts as the government and rebels accused each other of violating a truce.
However, insurgent groups in Aleppo said they still had not seen the army withdrawing from the Castello Road, needed to allow aid deliveries into the city, and would not pull back from their own positions near the road until they did.
The Pentagon said it could not confirm reports of a withdrawal but US state department spokesman Mark Toner said the ceasefire was holding “by and large”, adding Washington and Moscow believed it worth continuing.
But there were growing accusations of violations by each side, with a Syrian military source saying the rebels were responsible for dozens of breaches including gun, rocket and mortar fire in Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Latakia. The rebels said Syrian army jets had struck in Hama and Idlib, and used artillery near Damascus.
Relative calm
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said that while it had documented attacks by both sides, relative calm had persisted in most areas and it had not recorded any civilian deaths for a third consecutive day. Control of the Castello Road is divided between the government and rebels battling to topple Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for more than five years. It has been a major flashpoint in the war.
"The Syrian army . . . began the staged withdrawal of vehicles and personnel from the Castello Road to ensure the unimpeded delivery of aid to eastern Aleppo," said Lieut-Gen Vladimir Savchenko, head of the Russian reconciliation centre in Syria on state television.
The observatory said the army had started to withdraw from positions on the road, but Russian troops, whose air force has helped Damascus to blockade rebel-held Aleppo, had replaced it.
An official in an Aleppo-based Syrian rebel group said the army had still not pulled back. “There is no withdrawal by the regime from the Castello Road,” said Zakaria Malahifji, of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim.
The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the US and Russia were expected to manage the disengagement of forces, but criticised Damascus for failing to provide permits to make deliveries to other areas.
UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said both the rebels and the government were responsible for delaying aid. “The reason we’re not in eastern Aleppo has again been a combination of very difficult and detailed discussions around security monitoring and passage of roadblocks, which is both opposition and government,” he said.
The Syrian government has said all aid deliveries must be conducted in co-ordination with it. – (Reuters)