BEIRUT—Syrian rebels said Tuesday that they reached a cease-fire deal with Moscow to evacuate civilians and fighters from eastern Aleppo, after the U.N. and opposition activists reported possible mass killings by government forces closing in on the rebels’ last enclave.
There was no immediate comment from Damascus or Moscow on the agreement, which would effectively cede the remainder of Syria’s largest city to President Bashar Assad’s forces after months of heavy fighting and a crippling siege.
Osama Abu Zayd, a Turkey-based legal adviser for an umbrella group of rebel factions known as the Free Syrian Army, said the cease-fire went into effect Tuesday evening and that the first batch will begin evacuating within hours.
Yasser al-Youssef, a spokesman for the Nour el-Din el-Zinki rebel group, confirmed the cease-fire and said the goal is to evacuate civilians and rebels from besieged areas.
It was not immediately clear whether the hostilities had ceased in Aleppo. The opposition-run Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said shelling was continuing.
World leaders and aid agencies issued dramatic appeals on behalf of trapped residents earlier Tuesday, and the U.N. human rights office said that pro-government forces reportedly killed 82 civilians “on the spot” as they closed in on remaining rebel districts.
That and other reports of mass killings, which could not be independently confirmed, reinforce fears of atrocities in eastern Aleppo in the final hours of the battle for the city, which has been split between rebel and government control since 2012.
Several residents and opposition activists have told The Associated Press that government forces carried out summary killings of rebels in the streets in neighborhoods captured on Monday, but the Syrian military flatly denied the claims, saying such allegations were “a desperate attempt” to try gain international sympathy.
None of the residents reached by AP witnessed the alleged killings, and their accounts reflected the deepening chaos. Mohammed Abu Rajab, the administrator of the last remaining clinic in rebel-held parts of the city, said people who were killed or wounded are being left in the streets.
Aref al-Aref, a nurse and activist in eastern Aleppo, said civilians had taken cover in a medical center after its staff evacuated two days earlier. He said the army killed them, but pressed for details, said he only heard it from others.
Monther Etaky, a resident of eastern Aleppo, said he also heard reports of summary killings and knows of three families who were reportedly killed.
The U.N.’s children agency said Tuesday that there could be more than 100 unaccompanied children trapped in building under fire in eastern Aleppo, citing a report from an unnamed doctor in the city. Regional director Geert Cappalaere said UNICEF is concerned over the unverified reports of “extrajudicial killings of civilians, including children.”
