BEIRUT -- A cease-fire to allow wounded civilians and rebels to leave besieged parts of Aleppo has been extended into the weekend by Russia, but hoped-for medical evacuations didn't materialize by Friday evening because of a lack of security guarantees, officials and residents said.
The dawn-to-dusk "humanitarian pause" that began Thursday will last into today on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, said Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, speaking in Moscow. It had been due to expire Friday.
The lull had been greeted with high hopes by U.N. officials, and the Syrian government opened a new corridor for those wanting to flee the neighborhoods shattered by weeks of Russian and Syrian airstrikes.
But by Friday evening, no evacuations were seen along the corridor, reflecting the intractable nature of Syria's civil war, now in its sixth year.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N.'s humanitarian aid agency, described an "astronomically difficult situation," although he declined to specify who was responsible for the breakdown.
He told reporters in Geneva that the evacuations couldn't begin "because the necessary conditions were not in place to ensure safe, secure and voluntary" movement of people.
"So far, we could not proceed due to lack of security guarantees that can ensure the safety of the patients," said Ingy Sedky, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross who was in the government-held part of western Aleppo to prepare for possible operations with its regional partner, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
A U.N. official said Syrian opposition fighters were blocking the evacuations because the Syrian government and Russia were not holding up their end of the deal and were impeding deliveries of medical and humanitarian supplies into Aleppo.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity pending release of an official statement, said intensive efforts were under way in Damascus, Aleppo, Geneva and Gaziantep, Turkey, to try to move forward on the evacuations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said al-Qaida-linked militants in Aleppo were refusing to leave the city along the corridors created by the Russians and Syrian forces "despite the gestures of goodwill from Moscow and Damascus," he told reporters in the Russian capital.
Militants from the al-Qaida affiliate formerly known as the Nusra Front are believed to make up a minority of the several thousand fighters in the besieged district.
Rudskoi, of the Russian Defense Ministry, accused militants of firing at humanitarian corridors and using the break to prepare for an offensive.
"The terrorists are doing everything to prevent civilians and the militants from leaving eastern Aleppo," he said. "All our requests to the American colleagues to put the pressure on the so-called moderate opposition to persuade them to end the shelling, let civilians leave or leave themselves, have been left unanswered."
He said eight wounded militants left Thursday and were driven toward rebel-controlled Idlib, while seven civilians managed to flee at night.
The pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV showed video of government bulldozers that had opened a road, with buses and ambulances parked and waiting to take out evacuees.
Residents of eastern Aleppo have said many won't use the corridors because there are no guarantees they won't be arrested by government forces.
"No one has left the city so far," said Mohammed Abu Rajab, who works at a hospital that was hit repeatedly in recent weeks, knocking it out of service. "People are worried they might be detained. There are no guarantees."
Speaking by phone, he said any evacuations should be coordinated with the U.N. in order for people to feel they can leave safely.
The U.N. had said it received assurances for the extension of the cease-fire until Monday, but the Kremlin didn't confirm that, saying only that it was possible if militants don't abuse it.
LOOKING CLOSER AT ALEPPO
Also Friday, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council passed a resolution calling for an enhanced investigation of rights violations and abuses in Aleppo, a measure aimed at putting pressure on Russia.
The council voted 24-7, with 16 abstentions, at a special session on the "deteriorating situation of human rights" in Syria and in Aleppo. The resolution largely reiterated previous ones by the council, but it called on the Commission of Inquiry on Syria to specifically investigate crimes in Aleppo and report back to the 47-member body.
The United Kingdom spearheaded the resolution to put pressure on Russia, which was among those voting against it.
U.N. human-rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein had earlier told the council that Aleppo had become "a slaughterhouse" after weeks of bombardment.
Opposition groups have shelled government-controlled civilian areas of western Aleppo, but an overwhelming majority of civilian casualties have come from Russian and Syrian airstrikes on the rebel-held eastern areas, Zeid said.
"No hypothetical advantage in global gamesmanship could possibly outweigh this pain and horror," he said.
"Every party to the conflict should know they will be held accountable for the international crimes they commit," he added, urging the Security Council to promptly refer the conflict to the International Criminal Court.
The U.K. and the United States, among other countries, had called the session to increase international pressure for a halt to hostilities in Syria.
"Russia, you are making the situation worse, not solving it," Tobias Ellwood, Britain's junior foreign minister for the Middle East and Africa, told the council. He condemned as "shameful" its veto of a Security Council resolution this month demanding an immediate end to the bombing of Aleppo.
Alexey Borodavkin, the Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, shot back that the resolution had failed to take into account the latest pause in hostilities. He called on the body to support what he called the Syrian government's fight against terrorists, instead of letting them regroup. Rebel groups, Borodavkin said, were holding residents hostage.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb, Jamey Keaten, Bassem Mroue, Suzan Fraser, Howard Amos, Vladimir Isachenkov and Jeff Schaeffer of The Associated Press and by Nick Cumming-Bruce and Anne Barnard of The New York Times.
A Section on 10/22/2016