October 21, 2016•Update: October 21, 2016
By Halit Suleyman and Ayse Aktas
ALEPPO, Syria
Hundreds of people in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo on Thursday demonstrated against Russia’s planned 'evacuation' of besieged parts of the city.
Protesters gathered in Aleppo’s Al-Shear neighborhood, waving banners and shouting slogans -- in Arabic and English -- expressing their opposition to the move and their insistence on remaining in the city.
Protester Abu Ahmed (who declined to give his full name due to fears of reprisal) told Anadolu Agency that he and his fellow Aleppo residents had no plans to leave the city.
"Even though the regime and Russia have mercilessly bombarded us, we’re not going to leave," he said.
On Thursday and Friday, Russia declared a "humanitarian pause" in Aleppo to allow civilians and armed opposition groups to leave the city for the opposition-held city of Idlib.
On Wednesday, Russia called on civilians to leave Aleppo, warning that a new offensive would begin once the ceasefire ended.
Since Sept. 19, when the Assad regime announced the end of a week-long truce, hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed or injured in Aleppo by fierce Russian and Syrian airstrikes.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to UN figures.
