Opposition fighters fired rockets at an evacuation route in Syria's Aleppo Friday and there was no sign of civilians or rebels leaving besieged neighbourhoods as a Russian-declared unilateral ceasefire took effect. Syrian state media and Russia's defence ministry said rebels fired rockets at one of the eight passages open for civilians and rebels. Half-way through the 10-hour ceasefire, AFP correspondents in Aleppo said no one had used any of the passages Moscow said were open.
Damascus ally Russia said the 10-hour "humanitarian pause" was an attempt to "prevent senseless casualties." But a similar, three-day pause last month ended with only a handful of people leaving besieged eastern areas. Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been devastated by fighting since the rebels seized the east of the city in 2012, turning its historic heart into a battlefield. The army cut the last supply route into rebel-held territory in July, leaving more than 250,000 civilians still living there without access to basic goods.
The rebels launched a bid to break the siege last week, which they stepped up on Thursday before the ceasefire began. After several hours of quiet overnight, AFP correspondents in east and west Aleppo on Friday reported fighting and Syrian air strikes on the city's western outskirts.
Rebel rocket fire hit the Castello road, which leads north out of opposition-controlled territory in Aleppo's east, state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The rockets lightly wounded two Russian servicemen who were monitoring the ceasefire, according to the Russian defence ministry. Syrian state media said the fire also wounded a Syrian reporter. The attack forced Moscow to temporarily cut a live video feed of the area, which had shown barrels painted with the Syrian flag next to a large photograph of President Bashar al-Assad propped up by sandbags.
Another featured waiting ambulances while the third - which appeared to be filmed from a drone - showed a line of green coaches. Civilians in east Aleppo, who have faced weeks of devastating bombardment by the government and Russia, have expressed scepticism about safe passage offers. The rebels dismissed the latest ceasefire as a ploy by Moscow to deflect international criticism of the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.
"This announcement is worthless... We don't trust the Russians or any of their cheap initiatives," said Yasser al-Youssef, a politburo member of the Nureddin al-Zinki rebel brigade in Aleppo. But rebels have also come under criticism for their shelling of western government-held districts. Rocket fire on regime-controlled neighbourhoods killed at least 12 people on Thursday, state media said.
The latest deaths brought to nearly 70 the number of civilians killed in government-held areas during the offensive, according to the Britain-based Observatory. It added that rebels had captured the Dahiyet al-Assad neighbourhood and the village of Minyan west of Aleppo. The United Nations said it would not be attempting any medical evacuations from rebel-held sectors during Friday's ceasefire. UN agencies tried but failed to organise evacuation convoys during last month's pause.