Aleppo: 2,000 Militants Ready to Surrender to Syrian Gov’t

“In an unprecedented move, a least 2,000 militants have contacted their families and announced their readiness to lay down arms and join the peace plan in Aleppo city,” Arabic-language al-Watan reported on Saturday, quoting militants’ relatives and family members.

“In the meantime, renowned figures and tribal leaders in Aleppo districts have formed local committees to identify those militants who want to join the peace agreement to introduce them to the national reconciliation committees,” al-Watan said, adding, “Popular protests against militancy and the Syrian government forces’ advances have caused a rising despair among the militants and a recent growth in their surrender to the government forces.”

“A large number of militants in Seif al-Dowleh, Salahuddin, Bostan al-Pasha, Karam al-Jabal, Bostasn al-Qasr have laid down arms and surrendered to the authorities,” the Syrian paper added.

Meantime, Syrian military planes dropped thousands of surrender-now leaflets over militant-held districts in Aleppo on Saturday.

Commander of the operations’ department at the Russian General Staff Lieutenant General Sergey Rodskoy said on Thursday that his country’s army is ready to ensure a safe exit for gunmen and civilians who want to leave the Eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo.

In a statement, Rodskoy said that the West ignores the use of civilians as human shields by the armed groups in Syria and continue to launch a media campaign against Russia by accusing it of bombing Aleppo randomly.

He pointed out that Russia was ready to help in the operation of delivering humanitarian aid to the Eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo, stressing the need for guarantees on the part of the gunmen who are there in order to avoid a repeat of the attack on an aid convoy in Oram al-Kubra to the West of Aleppo on September 19.

An official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said that the government, due to its keenness on the lives of the citizens living in Eastern Aleppo, expressed full readiness to ensure the safety of those who wanted to leave the area.

The source added that the Syrian government also would guarantee the safety of gunmen who wanted to leave the area to settle their legal status or to head to other areas for normal life to return to Eastern Aleppo and the state service institutions to resume work to meet the needs of the citizens who want to stay in Eastern Aleppo.