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Scores 'missing' in Aleppo

UN worries about their fate, says rebels using civilians as pawns

AFP, Geneva
Hundreds of men may have gone missing after fleeing into government-controlled parts of Aleppo, the UN warned yesterday, saying armed groups were reportedly blocking civilians from leaving the shrinking areas under their control.
As Syrian government artillery pummelled the rebel territory in Aleppo, the UN rights office said both sides appeared to be operating in "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”, and that civilians were paying the price.
“Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals," UN rights spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.
The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012. More than 400 civilians, including 45 children, have been killed in eastern
Aleppo since the latest offensive began on November 15 while rebel fire into the government-controlled west is reported to have killed more than 100 people, including 35 children.
The assault has also prompted a mass exodus from east Aleppo where at least 80,000 people have fled their homes. It is unclear how many civil-
ians remain in rebel territory, but there were an estimated 250,000 in east Aleppo before the latest offensive.
He said armed Syrian opposition groups were reportedly blocking civilians from leaving their shrinking enclave, and had allegedly abducted and killed people who protested theirpresence.
"Civilians are being used as pawns
and prevented from leaving, in blatant violation of the obligation to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of attack," Colville said.
He also accused rebels of abducting and killing an unknown number of civilians who requested the armed groups to leave their neighbourhoods, to spare the lives of civilians. “
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said that Syria's Aleppo will continue to be bombed by the Moscow-backed regime as long as rebels remain in the devastated city.
And the Syrian government yesterday said it was ready to resume dialogue with the Syrian opposition, but without external intervention or preconditions, a statement carried by state news agency SANA said, citing a foreign ministry source.
The statement said Syria was responding to comments by United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura on Thursday that it was time to look again at political discussions, and said Syria was ready to resume "Syrian-Syrian dialogue".