{"id":290,"date":"2016-12-13T14:15:35","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T14:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=290"},"modified":"2016-12-13T14:15:35","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T14:15:35","slug":"aleppo-reports-of-executions-as-syrian-army-closes-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2016\/12\/13\/aleppo-reports-of-executions-as-syrian-army-closes-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Aleppo: Reports of executions as Syrian army closes in"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"el__leafmedia el__leafmedia--sourced-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><cite class=\"el-editorial-source\">(CNN)<\/cite>Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have been entering homes in the last pockets of Aleppo held by rebels and shooting people on the spot, the United Nations has said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he had been told that 82 civilians, including women and children, were shot in their homes or on the streets on Monday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">The grim reports came as government forces continued their advance on the last of the <a href=\"http:\/\/cnn.com\/2016\/12\/09\/middleeast\/aleppo-what-you-need-to-know\/index.html\">rebel-held neighborhoods<\/a> in Aleppo, once Syria&#8217;s commercial and cultural heart. Government forces on Tuesday were in control of most of eastern Aleppo, as the four-year battle for the city neared a bloody end.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<h3>Latest developments<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"cnn_rich_text\">\n<li>Around 100 children are trapped in a building under heavy attack, UNICEF says, citing a doctor there.<\/li>\n<li>UN said forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad killed 82 people on Monday, shot on the spot in their homes or on the street.<\/li>\n<li>Regime now holds almost all of the city of Aleppo, Syria&#8217;s second city and once its commercial capital.<\/li>\n<li>Gaining full control would mark a turning point for the regime in the country&#8217;s five-year civil war.<\/li>\n<li>Humanitarian groups plea for safe passage for the tens of thousands of civilians left in rebel-controlled pockets.\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<h3>&#8216;Complete meltdown of humanity&#8217;<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he had received &#8220;deeply disturbing reports&#8221; of dead bodies lying in the streets and that residents were unable to retrieve them in the intense bombardment out of &#8220;fear of being shot on sight.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">He said that 11 women and 13 children were among the 82 civilians killed Monday, in what he described as the last &#8220;hellish corner&#8221; of rebel-held Aleppo.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;While some were reportedly able to flee yesterday, some were reportedly caught and killed on the spot and others arrested,&#8221; Colville said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;In these hours, it looks like a complete meltdown of humanity in Aleppo.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"el__embedded el__embedded--fullwidth\">\n<div class=\"el__video--fullwidth js__video--fullwidth\">\n<div id=\"media__video_body-text_17--wrapper\" class=\"js-media__video media__video\">\n<div class=\"media__caption el__storyelement__title\"><span class=\"el__storyelement__header\">Why is Aleppo so important in Syria?<\/span> <span class=\"el__storyelement__gray\">01:28<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere said that he had received &#8220;alarming reports&#8221; that &#8220;possibly more than 100 children, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;It is time for the world to stand up for the children of Aleppo and bring their living nightmare to an end,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"el__embedded el__embedded--fullwidth\">\n<div class=\"el__image--fullwidth js__image--fullwidth\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"media__caption el__gallery_image-title\">\n<div class=\"element-raw appearance-fullwidth\">Syrian children flee with their families from the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood in Aleppo on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Activists said anyone with links to the rebels who seized control of the enclave in 2012 was being hunted down.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;Every hour, butcheries are carried out,&#8221; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">The Syrian government did not comment on the killings in state-run media.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">CNN has not been able to verify the execution reports.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<h3>Aleppo on the brink<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Humanitarian volunteers in Aleppo have issued a desperate plea for help and safe passage for the estimated 100,000 civilians and rebels still trapped in the city&#8217;s east, now a wasteland of carnage and rubble.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Amid the chaos, the self-styled Syria Civil Defense volunteer rescue group &#8212; also known as the White Helmets &#8212; was among groups pleading for safe passage out of Aleppo for their volunteers and civilians.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;The regime has been trying to kill us for five years,&#8221; the group said on Twitter. &#8220;Please don&#8217;t give them this chance.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;We hear children crying, we hear calls for help, but we just can&#8217;t do anything.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">The government is poised now to take the whole of Aleppo city. It was already in control of the west and in just over two weeks has taken most of the east. Seizing the whole of Aleppo would put the government in control of all five major cities, marking a turning point in the five-year war.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Some of those left in the last few rebel-held towns are begging the international community to stop the regime&#8217;s advance.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;Please, go to the embassies and block the way,&#8221; said Salah Ashkar, an activist in east Aleppo, in a video posted on Twitter.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">He called for people to protest at UN headquarters in their countries.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;Please, don&#8217;t let them sleep. Do it, do it, do it, do that now. There is no minute to spare. Please, please, stand with Aleppo,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">But for others, the regime&#8217;s advance is cause for celebration. Syrian state-run Alikhbaria TV broadcast people chanting, firing gunshots in the air and blaring car horns with joy.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<h3>Failed attempts at peace<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">The bloodshed comes as the international community has failed to find a political solution to the crisis in Aleppo, which has become the epicenter of Syria&#8217;s brutal five-year war.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Russia has used its veto power several times to shoot down resolutions in the UN Security Council, and an agreement has hinged on Russia and its fiercest critic, the US, finding a middle ground.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">The two nations appeared to be on the brink of an agreement in Geneva Sunday over a cessation of hostilities involving the safe evacuation of rebels and civilians and the delivery of desperately needed aid.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">But US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the Russian side was putting off agreeing to the deal.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">&#8220;Rather than accepting the US proposal for an immediate cessation, the Russians informed us that a cessation could not start for several days, meaning that the assault by the regime and its supporters on Aleppo would continue until any agreement would go into effect,&#8221; Kirby told a press briefing.<\/div>\n<div class=\"el__embedded el__embedded--standard\">\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">On Monday, Pope Francis reached out to President Assad, asking him &#8220;to ensure that international humanitarian law is fully respected with regard to the protection of the civilians and access to humanitarian aid,&#8221; according to a statement from the Vatican.<\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Rebel groups held eastern Aleppo for more than four years after the Arab Spring uprising and a Syrian regime siege on the area had essentially cut it off from the outside world, sparking a humanitarian crisis there.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(CNN)Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have been entering homes in the last pockets of Aleppo held by rebels and shooting people on the spot, the United Nations has said. A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he had been told that 82 civilians, including women and children, were shot in their homes or on the&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2016\/12\/13\/aleppo-reports-of-executions-as-syrian-army-closes-in\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}