Russia, Syria blockade Aleppo, offer corridors out

BEIRUT -- After months of fighting to encircle its opponents in Aleppo, Syrian authorities backed by Russia on Thursday offered safe corridors out for residents and rebels in the northern city's besieged quarters, underlining the government's determination to seal off the metropolis and force an eventual surrender by the opposition.

Many residents dismissed the offer, saying it presents them with an impossible choice between a slow death if they stay behind and possible detention if they attempt to leave.

The encirclement of rebel-held eastern Aleppo sets the stage for a drawn-out siege with potentially huge implications for the future of the armed opposition to President Bashar Assad.

The military continued to consolidate its grip Thursday, seizing a district on the northern edge of the city.

"If Assad shows that he is winning Aleppo, and he's now also advancing on the rebels in Damascus, it could trigger a more dramatic shift by finally convincing opposition groups that they have lost the war," said Aron Lund, nonresident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The announcement on humanitarian corridors was made by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and was followed by a general amnesty offer by Assad for rebels who give up their weapons and surrender to authorities over the next three months.

Rebels and residents of Aleppo said they were deeply skeptical of the offer, and there was no sign of people massing to leave the besieged parts of the city.

"I will not leave. I will be the last man in the city," said Mohammed Zein Khandakani, a 28-year-old resident of the Maadi neighborhood of Aleppo who volunteers with the city's medical council. "I can't imagine ever seeing a member of this regime one more time."

But Khandakani, formerly a lawyer who was detained for a month in the early days of the protests against the Syrian government, said he was worried about his family.

A father of two -- the youngest a girl of 9 months -- he said despite the risk of maltreatment and even arrest, he is urging his mother, wife and sister to use the safe passages to leave the city.

Fliers dropped over eastern Aleppo showed supposed corridors leading to government areas, but the media office for the opposition's civil-defense search-and-rescue group in east Aleppo said no safe corridors have been opened.