\n President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 10-hour truce on Friday in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo, the Russian defence ministry said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"A decision was made to introduce a 'humanitarian pause' in Aleppo on November 4 from 9:00 am (0600 GMT) to 19:00,\" the chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov said in a statement on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gerasimov said the decision was approved by Syrian authorities and was meant to \"prevent senseless casualties\" by allowing civilians and armed combatants to quit rebel-held eastern Aleppo.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said eight corridors -- six for civilians and two for fighters -- could be used for this.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rebels launched a major assault Friday to break the siege of Aleppo but have been met this week by fierce resistance from regime forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n Aleppo has been hit by some of the worst violence in Syria's five-year conflict, turning the once bustling economic hub into a divided and bombed-out city.\n<\/p>\n
\n Defence ministry Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Russia had ceased air strikes on eastern Aleppo for 16 days, following criticism over a Russian-backed Syrian government assault that has killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed infrastructure, including hospitals.\n<\/p>\n
\n The halt in bombing was initially declared ahead of a short ceasefire that ended last month. Moscow at the time ruled out a truce extension.\n<\/p>\n
\n Shoigu accused the US-led coalition of failing to rein in hardline rebels and said that the chances of a political settlement to the crisis was now remote.\n<\/p>\n
\n The West has accused Moscow of committing possible war crimes in Aleppo through indiscriminate bombing to support a brutal Syrian government offensive.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria in support of long-time ally Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 300,000 people have been killed since Syria's war devolved from a widespread protest movement against Assad's rule in March 2011 to a multi-front war between rebels, jihadists, Kurds and regime forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 10-hour truce on Friday in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo, the Russian defence ministry said. \"A decision was made to introduce a 'humanitarian pause' in Aleppo on November 4 from 9:00 am (0600 GMT) to 19:00,\" the chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov said in a statement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-30457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n