President Vladimir Putin has denied the Russian military’s request to order a resumption of airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, his press secretary said. The military had asked permission to resume airstrikes due to the increased activity of militants.

“The Russian president considers it inappropriate at the present time to resume airstrikes in Aleppo," Dmitry Peskov told the press.

However, Peskov added that “in case of extreme necessity to prevent provocative actions on the part of terrorist groups, the Russian side reserves the right to use all means at its disposal to provide an appropriate level of support to the Syrian armed forces.”

Russia will make a decision on further action in accordance with the events on the ground in Aleppo, the spokesman added.

The Russian president believes that the humanitarian pause should continue “to allow the withdrawal of the wounded and the militants who wish to leave the city. And, which is also significant, to allow our American partners to fulfill the obligations to separate the so-called ‘moderate’ opposition and the terrorists, which they took upon themselves,” Peskov said.

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Earlier on Friday, Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations in the Russian General Staff, said: "Due to the fact that there are still deaths among civilians and that the militants have resumed military activities against government forces, we’ve addressed Russia’s commander-in-chief, asking permission for the resumption of airstrikes targeting illegal armed groups in eastern Aleppo,”

Earlier on Friday, militants “used the moratorium of Russian and Syrian combat flights” and attempted to break into eastern Aleppo, the General Staff representative said.

“The attack was carried out by three groups [of militants]… with support of 20 tanks and 15 APCs. All this was accompanied by heavy fire from rocket launchers and artillery," he said.

The offensive was repelled, with the terrorists losing six tanks and five armored personnel carriers, Rudskoy said.

During the last three days, the terrorists have shelled western Aleppo on 62 occasions, killing 43 people and injuring 76 more, Rudskoy said.

On Thursday, a school in the Hay al-Andalus district of the city came under fire, with 12 civilians, including three school children, losing their lives and 14 others receiving injuries.

Russian air forces in Syria have not carried out combat flights in eastern Aleppo for 10 days in order to facilitate humanitarian access to the city.

Russia’s center for reconciliation in Syria is currently in talks “with representatives of the public authorities of eastern Aleppo and several armed groups on the evacuation of the civilian population and withdrawal of militants from areas under their control,” Rudskoy said. </s> MOSCOW: The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin did not think it was time to resume air strikes on Aleppo after the defence ministry requested that a moratorium on bombing be lifted.

“The Russian president considers it inappropriate at the current moment to resume strikes on Aleppo,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Putin thought it was necessary to “continue the humanitarian pause” in the war-ravaged city. -AFP </s> MOSCOW, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Russia’s President Vladimir Putin believes that the resumption of air strikes in Syria’s Aleppo is unnecessary for now, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Putin rejects resuming the strikes in order to give the United States time to separate terrorist groups from the moderate opposition and to allow militants and civilians to leave Aleppo, Peskov said.

However, Russia reserves the right to use all of its means and force to support Syrian army, he added. (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Polina Devitt; Editing by Alison Williams) </s> The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against terrorism.

Russia announced a major air offensive in Syria on Tuesday as Syrian opposition activists reported the first airstrikes in three weeks in the besieged, rebel-held part of the northern city of Aleppo.

The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy “international terrorism and extremism.”

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. Al-Qaeda’s local affiliate fights alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Mr. Putin on Tuesday that the operation involves aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicised trip to Syria’s shores last month. He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.

The activists reported strikes in all three places. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean have struck areas in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. The Observatory said airstrikes also struck three neighborhoods in Aleppo city, but had no immediate word on casualties.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syria’s largest city.

“People are scared. The bombardment is intense,” al-Halaby wrote.

In mid-October, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

On Saturday, government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo that was designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. Aleppo has been contested since 2012.

The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two U.N. agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to “an all—time low,” threatening to drive more people from their homes after 5-1/2 years of war.

The World Food Program and the Food and Agricultural Organization say factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertilizer and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing.

A joint report released Tuesday says the planting area in the 2015—2016 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition. WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said information was lacking about areas controlled by IS.

FAO regional representative Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said 80 percent of households lack food or money to buy it. </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no other option but to clear out what he called "a nest of terrorists" from Syria's Aleppo despite the fact that civilians were also present in the city.

Putin said civilian casualties in conflicts should be mourned everywhere, not just in Aleppo, pointing to what he said were civilians killed around Mosul in Iraq.

"Bells should toll for all innocent victims. Not just in Aleppo," said Putin. </s> TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that he opposed a ceasefire in the rebel-held Syrian enclave of Idlib because Nusra Front and Islamic State militants located there were not part of peace talks.

Speaking at talks in Tehran with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, Putin said the Syrian government, a close Russian ally, should regain control over all of its territory. </s> U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of a Mediterranean Dialogues Summit in Rome, on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016.

PARIS — Russia said late Thursday that the Syrian military has suspended its combat operations in eastern Aleppo to allow civilians to leave the city and that it had reached agreement with the United States to negotiate the safe departure of rebel fighters.

A senior U.S. State Department official here traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry said that neither of those assertions could yet be confirmed but that Kerry was in contact with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There were conflicting reports from inside Aleppo, where some residents reported a sudden quiet, but others said neighborhoods were still under fire. On Wednesday, as many as 150 elderly residents of Aleppo's Old City were evacuated by the government in a joint operation with the International Red Cross.

Lavrov, speaking to Russian journalists in Hamburg, said a much bigger evacuation was underway. "Yet another and the biggest [operation] so far . . . to evacuate the civilians willing to leave the place is underway there," he said, according to Russia's state-owned Tass news agency. "There are some 8,000 people in the column. That's a huge operation, and the withdrawal route is five kilometers long."

Kerry and Lavrov met twice Thursday morning in Hamburg, where both were attending an international conference. Kerry left at midday for Paris, and the two spoke again by telephone during the afternoon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic contacts.

The White House, which has long been skeptical of Moscow's sincerity in its discussions on Syria, reacted guardedly. "Our approach to this situation from the beginning has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say but scrutinize their actions," press secretary Josh Earnest said.

Last summer, the United States suspended military and diplomatic "expert" talks with Russia in Geneva over a possible cease-fire in Syria when the government siege of eastern Aleppo began with assistance from Russian air attacks. A ferocious government ground offensive in the last few weeks, with hundreds of reported civilian deaths, has retaken all but about a quarter of the territory the opposition once held in the city. Up to 200,000 civilians, and several thousand rebels, are said to remain there.

Lavrov said that he and Kerry had reached agreement to restart the Geneva talks on Saturday to determine "the ways and methods of a final settlement of the eastern Aleppo problem through the departure of all militants and those civilians residents, who will wish to do so, from there," the Russian news agency Interfax reported from Hamburg.

The State Department official said the resumption of expert talks had been "discussed" but had not yet been finalized as of late Thursday.

The immediate Kerry-Lavrov discussions are about evacuating Aleppo and "determining the timing, the safety and where [opposition fighters and civilians] are going to go," the State Department official said. France will host a meeting here Saturday morning of the United States and other governments in Europe and the region to discuss the process.

The hope is that talks in Geneva will move quickly to a Syria-wide cease-fire that will allow humanitarian aid deliveries to hundreds of thousands in besieged communities across the western third of the country, and to restart political talks between the opposition and the government of President Bashar al-Assad over a political transition.

After more than a year of start-and-stop negotiations have failed to halt the carnage in Syria, optimism was tempered. "If that occurs, we obviously would welcome that development," Earnest said. "It won't be some sort of accident or coincidence . . . it will be the product and the result of skilled, principled, tough, tenacious diplomacy and much of the credit will go to Secretary Kerry."

"But we'll see what happens," he said. </s> BEIRUT -- Opposition fighters fired mortars Friday at a corridor set aside for rebels and residents to leave besieged eastern Aleppo, Russian and Syrian officials said, breaking a "humanitarian pause" by Russia and wounding two Russian soldiers and a Syrian journalist.

For most of the 10-hour halt in fighting, which was unilaterally announced by Russia, no one had approached the corridors, and webcam video from the Russian Defense Ministry showed no activity. There was no U.N. monitoring of the exit routes.

During similar, previous halts in fighting, rebels and civilians in eastern Aleppo also mostly stayed put, saying international monitors were not involved and there were no guarantees of security for those who left. Some battle-hardened residents believe that the government would arrest anyone who comes out through the corridors.

About four hours before the pause expired, Syrian state media said seven mortar shells from the rebel-held territory hit one of the corridors in the northern part of the city.

The two Russians were slightly wounded during the shelling, and they were evacuated, but their lives were not in danger, the Russian Defense Ministry said. A correspondent for a pro-government broadcaster also was wounded by shrapnel, Syrian state TV said.

Syria's government largely abided by the halt. Russia, a staunch ally, has been supporting Syria's fight against the rebels with a campaign of airstrikes as recently as September and October.

The "humanitarian pause" by Russia raised speculation that a major offensive might begin after its expiration at 7 p.m. in Aleppo. There were no immediate reports of any new airstrikes there.

U.N. officials in Geneva would not comment directly on the Russian initiative but reiterated that security conditions were not adequate for bringing aid into eastern Aleppo. The U.N. stepped up calls for a nationwide truce in the civil war, not just in the northern city.

Asked whether the Russian plan offered a window of opportunity for aid convoys, spokesman Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told reporters: "I'm trying my best not to comment on the actual initiative, but to state what the situation is."

Jessy Chahine, a spokesman for U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, added that anything that helps save lives "is more than welcome."

But she added that de Mistura was against the evacuation of civilians "unless it is voluntary."

Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and its pre-war commercial hub, has become one of the biggest theaters of the civil war, where eastern districts have been controlled by rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad and western areas have been controlled by the government. The eastern part has been besieged by pro-government forces since July, and the U.N. estimates that 275,000 people are trapped there.

The previous halt faltered because the Syrian government and Russia refused to allow humanitarian aid into blockaded areas. This time, the U.N. was not part of the announcement or the operation of the corridors.

Meanwhile, a rebel offensive began last week on the government-held areas, home to more than 1 million people, including some displaced from the rebel side. A volley of missiles killed 12 civilians Thursday, state media said.

Overnight, the Syrian military dropped leaflets on the eastern side urging residents and rebels to leave during the pause in fighting, and one posted online by activists gave instructions on how to leave safely, with hands raised. Residents also reported getting text messages urging them to get out.

There has been no official word from Russia on what will happen after the halt in hostilities expires. Similar pauses ended last month with no resumption of airstrikes, which Russia said it had halted in eastern Aleppo. Some residents later reported bombardment on the front line with western districts.

On Thursday, a Russian lawmaker told the Interfax news agency that a "purge" of eastern Aleppo would begin if the pause produced no results. President Vladimir Putin urged opposition fighters to leave via the corridors.

Russia's aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, is in the Mediterranean and headed for the Syrian coast. Its presence suggests that Russia may be intending to escalate its assault on the rebels.

A rebel spokesman, Yasser al-Youssef of the Nour el-Din el-Zinki group, said opposition fighters are anticipating a "violent air campaign" in eastern Aleppo.

"The Russians are exerting more pressure on the rebellious people of Aleppo to get them out of the city," al-Youssef said. "This will not happen. Absolutely."

Syrian state TV showed buses parked in one of the corridors waiting for anyone leaving eastern Aleppo. Police and an Islamic cleric also were at the crossing.

No one had used the corridors by midday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and a volunteer of the Syrea Civil Defense group in Aleppo, Ibrahim al-Haj, added that no had left in the early afternoon.

Information for this article was contributed by Albert Aji, Vladimir Isachenkov and Jamey Keaten of The Associated Press. </s> Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, foreground, speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, with a montage in the background showing Secretary of State John Kerry shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

UNITED NATIONS — Russia has vetoed a U.N. resolution drafted by France demanding an immediate halt to the bombing of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.

The vote in the Security Council on Saturday afternoon was 11 countries in favor, two against and two abstentions.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had warned before the vote that the continued bombing of Aleppo was killing civilians and destroying hospitals and schools — "and has nothing to do with combatting terrorism."

"It is the annihilation of Aleppo," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects the Russian military’s request to resume airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, instead letting the humanitarian pause continue.