Tag: InternationalNews

{Amos Yee to spend six weeks in jail and pay fines after pleading guilty to charges of “wounding religious feelings”.}

A court in Singapore has sentenced a 17-year old blogger to six weeks in jail after he pleaded guilty to six charges of “wounding religious feelings” of Muslims and Christians.

Amos Yee was also ordered on Thursday to pay $1,400 in fines for two charges of defying police orders to show up for interviews and, instead, fleeing Singapore.

Presiding judge Ong Hian Sun said Yee had “deliberately elected to do harm” in a photograph and two videos he posted online that were said to have “offensive and insulting words and profane gestures to hurt the feelings of Christians and Muslims”.

The judge, while saying Yee’s actions could “generate social unrest”, hoped he would not appear in court for similar offences again.

Yee, who was accompanied by his mother, described the sentence as “very fair”.

“I am very remorseful”, he said outside the court, surrounded by a handful of supporters.

Yee first made headlines in March 2015 when he was arrested after publishing a rant on YouTube criticising Christianity and Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, shortly after his death.

Yee, who will begin his sentence on October 13, is a known atheist and has been posting his beliefs on his social media channels.

{{Watched by monitors}}

Yee’s latest month-long trial was attended by officials from the UN Human Rights Council and the EU, and was closely watched by rights groups.

“By prosecuting Amos Yee for his comments, no matter how outrageous they may have been, Singapore has unfortunately doubled down on a strategy that clearly violates freedom of expression,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Right Watch’s Asia division, said in an email.

“For a country that prides itself on efficiency, Singapore should re-examine its approach, because every time the authorities go after him, it just adds to his online audience who are interested to find out the latest thing.”

Critics said Yee’s imprisonment may further deter freedom of expression in the Asian financial hub.

Singapore’s parliament passed a controversial bill last month spelling out what constitutes contempt of court, drawing criticism from rights groups and foreign diplomats.

Amnesty International, the international rights organisation, called on Singapore to “repeal or amend legal provisions that criminalise peaceful dissent and end the intimidation and harassment of bloggers and other critics”.

David Kaye, UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said: “The lesson that somebody can be thrown in jail for their speech is exactly the wrong kind of message that any government should be sending to anybody, but especially to young people.”

{Allah Nazar Baloch warns of more attacks on Chinese economic project in Pakistan in first video interview in five years.}

Islamabad, Pakistan – The elusive leader of a major armed group fighting for independence in Pakistan’s Balochistan has said he would welcome cash and other help from India.

In his first video interview in five years, Allah Nazar Baloch, head of the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), also pledged further attacks on a Chinese economic corridor, parts of which run through the resource-rich province.

The planned $46bn trade route is expected to link western China with Pakistan’s Arabian Sea via a network of roads, railways and energy pipelines.

“We not only wish India should support the Baloch national struggle diplomatically and financially, but the whole world,” said Baloch, a doctor turned guerrilla believed to be about 50, in filmed responses to questions sent by Reuters news agency.

Baloch’s appeal for Indian help may deepen Pakistani suspicions that India has a hand in a decades-old unrest in the southwestern province.

Relations between the neighbours deteriorated this month after 18 Indian soldiers in Kashmir were killed in an attack on an army base that India blames on Pakistan.

Pakistan denies the accusation.

In the build-up to the raid, Pakistan had voiced outrage over the crackdown on protests in India’s part of the Muslim-majority region, and Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, hit back by accusing Pakistan of atrocities in Balochistan.

{{The Indian connection}}

Baloch, leader of one of three main armed groups fighting for independence, said that while he wanted support from India, the BLF had not received funding from Modi’s government, or India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Baloch is the only leader of a sizeable separatist group who is believed to be waging a guerrilla war from inside Balochistan; the other two leaders are in exile in Europe.

Security analysts said his fighters stage most of the attacks in the province and have borne the brunt of Pakistan army operations.

Reuters has not been able to establish the scale of the BLF campaign.

Brahamdagh Bugti, the Switzerland-based leader of the Balochistan Republican Party, another major separatist outfit, last week told Indian media that he planned to seek “political asylum” in India.

BLF chief Baloch claims to have “thousands” of fighters.

Domestic news coverage of the Balochistan conflict is rare and foreign journalists are broadly forbidden from visiting the province.

China’s investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has brought fresh focus on Balochistan, which is endowed with rich but largely unexploited reserves of copper and gold.

{{‘Imperialistic scheme’}}

Baloch, speaking from an undisclosed location, called CPEC a Chinese “imperialistic scheme”, and pledged to attack roads, security personnel and construction crews associated with it.

Over the past two years, there have been 44 workers reported killed and about 100 wounded in attacks on the CPEC sites.

“We are attacking the CPEC project every day. Because it is aimed to turn the Baloch population into a minority. It is looting, plundering and taking away our resources,” Baloch said.

Baloch and other separatists fear that indigenous Baloch people, who are estimated to number about seven million people out of Pakistan’s 190 million population, will become an ethnic minority in their ancestral lands if other groups flock to the region to work on exploiting its natural resources.

The rebel leader alleged that 150,000 people had been evicted from the route of the trade corridor by security forces to clear the way for roads and other infrastructure.

Pakistan’s military, which manages security for most of the province, did not comment on the number.

Human rights activists say that thousands of people have been killed or arbitrarily detained in Balochistan by the military, a charge Pakistani security forces deny.

Charges of abuse have also been levelled at rebel groups, including the BLF, which are accused of targeting non-Baloch citizens as part of their rebellion.

Baloch denied BLF killed civilians, but said his group did go after “traitors”.

Asked if he would be open to negotiations with the Pakistani state, Baloch was clear: There would be no dialogue with what he considered “the biggest terrorist country”.

“There will be no negotiations with Pakistan without national independence and without the presence of the United Nations,” he said.

“Our destination is independence.”

{Kerry tells Lavrov US holds Russia responsible for use of incendiary and bunker buster bombs against Aleppo civilians.}

The US has threatened to suspend cooperation with Russia over Syria, hours after the bombardment of two hospitals in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, as Syrian government forces backed by Moscow continued their offensive to retake the eastern part of the city from opposition fighters.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday that Washington would end talks on the conflict, as well as a military pact that involves targeting the ISIL and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham groups unless Moscow halted the assault on Aleppo.

Kerry conveyed the message in a call to Lavrov in which he voiced “grave concern” over the Russian-backed Syrian government’s air and land attacks on the besieged city that has left more than 400 people killed and at least 1,700 wounded since last week.

“The United States is making preparations to suspend US-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria … unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the State Department.

Kerry also said the US held Russia responsible for the use of incendiary and bunker buster bombs which put Aleppo civilians at great risk, according to Kirby.

The Syrian government’s offensive to recapture all of Aleppo – with Russian air support and Iranian help on the ground – has been accompanied by bombing that residents have described as unprecedented in its ferocity.

An estimated 250,000 people still live in the east, which has been under near-continuous siege since mid-July, causing food and fuel shortages. Attacks on water installations from both sides have left more than two million civilians without water.

Solution ‘no longer viable’

Russia’s defence ministry said later on Wednesday that Moscow was prepared to relaunch talks with the US on the crisis.

“On orders of the Russian president, we are ready to continue joint work with our American partners on the Syrian issue,” and to send experts to Geneva to “relaunch consultations,” the ministry said.

However, Muwaffaq Nyrabia, a senior member of the National Coalition, a Syrian opposition movement, said the escalating violence meant a political solution was “no longer viable”.

He said that the rebels were “considering all options to defend the Syrian people against the Russian aggression on Syria”.

Nyrabia’s comments came shortly after six civilians were killed when air strikes hit two hospitals in Aleppo.

The M10 and M2 hospitals were hit before dawn, forcing both to shut temporarily, and leaving just two of east Aleppo’s eight hospitals with surgical facilities.

Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor, James Bays, asked Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari if his country had bombed the two hospitals. Jaafari walked away laughing without an answer.

“It’s not clear why he was laughing considering his country is being accused of war crimes in Aleppo,” Bays said.

The latest bombardment has been some of the worst in Syria’s five-year civil war, and comes after the failure of a short-lived ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US this month.

{{‘Opportunity to escape’}}

Meanwhile, the head of the White Helmets volunteer rescue force, which operates in opposition-held territory in northern Syria, said that under current conditions civilian facilities in eastern Aleppo would no longer be able to function within a month.

“The civilians there would seize any opportunity to escape, to go wherever they could go,” Raed Saleh told AFP news agency.

“But nothing is available to provide safety and protection for those civilians.”

The Syrian civil war started as a largely unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly escalated into a full-blown armed conflict.

Five years on, more than 400,000 Syrians are estimated to have been killed, and almost 11 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar population – have been displaced from their homes.

{Justice minister confirms arrests of almost half of the 70,000 people investigated following July’s failed coup attempt.}

Turkish courts have placed 32,000 suspects under arrest on charges of links to a group run by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the July 15 coup, the justice minister said.

Bekir Bozdag told Turkey’s NTV television on Wednesday that 70,000 people had been investigated after the coup and of them 32,000 remanded in custody.

“This process is continuing,” he said. The numbers of those arrested marks an increase of more than 10,000 from those previously given by the government.

Bozdag said that there could be new arrests, while some of those currently arrested could still be freed under judicial control or freed entirely.

Some 10 weeks after the coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led to an unprecedented crackdown, there is still no indication as to when trials might start.

The trials of tens of thousands will be the biggest legal process in Turkey’s history and are set to put the system under immense pressure.

“It is not entirely clear how the trials will be carried out,” Bozdag acknowledged.

He said trials would take place in cities across the country and not in one single venue.

Bozdag said there was no need to create a special trial venue in Istanbul as capacity was sufficient. But he said one was needed in Ankara and work is taking place for a trial venue at Sincan outside the capital.

“People are not going to be put on trial in just one place but trials will take place in all of Turkey,” he said.

US officials will respond to Turkey’s demand to arrest Gulen within a couple of days, the justice minister added.

Turkey wants the US to extradite Gulen, who has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999, and prosecute him for masterminding the attempt to overthrow the government on July 15. The 75-year-old preacher denies any involvement.

Washington has previously said it is cooperating with Ankara and asked its NATO ally for patience as it processes the extradition request to meet US legal requirements.

{Philippine leader tells Filipinos in Vietnam that military drill with US in October will be the last during his term.}

President Rodrigo Duterte has announced that the military exercises between the Philippines and the United States scheduled for October will be the last under his administration.

Duterte made the announcement on Wednesday during his official visit to Vietnam, signalling a shift away from an alliance that is one of the oldest in Asia.

“You [US] are scheduled to hold war games, which China does not want. I will serve notice to you now that this will be the last military exercise. Jointly, Philippines [and] the US? Last one,” Duterte said in a speech to the Filipino community in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

The “amphibious landing exercise” involving 500 Filipino troops and 1,400 US forces is scheduled to take place from October 4 to 12, and is the first to be held under his administration.

The drill is separate from the annual joint military exercises that involve a larger contingent of US troops held every April.

“I will maintain the military alliance, the RP-US pact which our countries signed in the early 50s. But I will establish new alliances for trade and commerce,” Duterte said.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, the US State Department said it will “continue to focus on our broad relationship with the Philippines”.

“Our alliance is one of our most enduring and important relationships in the Asia Pacific region. It has been a cornerstone of stability for over 70 years. It is built on shared sacrifices for democracy and human rights and strong people-to-people and societal ties,” Julia Mason, a state department spokesman, said.

Mason said the US will continue to “work together in the many areas of mutual interest, including counterterrorism, to improve the livelihoods of the Philippine people and uphold our shared democratic values.”

In recent weeks Duterte has repeatedly declared that he wants to pursue an “independent foreign policy”, adding that he wants to “open alliances” with US rivals China and Russia.

{{‘Currency manipulation’}}

On Tuesday, he accused the US of manipulating the currency market to weaken the Philippine peso.

Two days ago, he was also quoted as saying that he was “about to cross the Rubicon between me and the United States,” adding that the country was at the “point of no return” in its relations with its former coloniser.

Since he took office in June, Duterte has repeatedly expressed his disdain towards the US policy in the Philippines.

He had also expressed profanities at the US ambassador to the Philippines, calling him a gay “son of a whore.”

Following the bombing in his hometown of Davao in early September, Duterte said he wants all US special forces based in Mindanao to leave.

During his first foreign trip as president, Duterte caused a diplomatic uproar when he reportedly uttered profanities towards US President Barack Obama, prompting the latter to cancel scheduled bilateral talks on the sideline of the ASEAN summit in Laos.

Duterte also said that the Philippines will no longer join any patrol led by the US in the South China Sea.

The Philippines recently won a case against China in the international court over disputed islands in the South China Sea, but Duterte said he was willing to set aside the ruling in exchange for Chinese investments.

The US and the Philippines signed the Mutual Defence Treaty in 1951, declaring that both nations would support each other if either country was attacked by an external party.

The Philippines hosted two of the largest US military facilities outside of the US up until 1992, when a volcanic eruption and a Philippine senate vote forced the closure of these bases.

In 1998, US troops returned through a “visiting forces agreement”, and in April 2014, during the visit of President Barack Obama, the agreement was expanded to allow more troops into the country for an extended duration.

{Prosecutors say evidence shows Malaysian jet brought down from area controlled by Ukraine rebels supported by Moscow.}

A Malaysian airliner shot down in eastern Ukraine was hit by a missile launched from an area controlled by Russia-backed rebels and the delivery system then retreated back into Russian territory, investigators said on Wednesday.

The findings challenge Russia’s suggestion that Malaysia Airlines flight 17 – en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014 – was brought down by the Ukrainian military. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.

The prosecutors cannot file charges but victims’ relatives have been seeking details of who shot the plane down in the hope it might lead eventually to prosecutions. The incident led to a sharp rise in East-West tensions.

“The investigators made it very clear that what they’ve made public to us is really only the tip of the iceberg, because they need to keep a lot of this material in reserve for what they hope will be a criminal investigation.

“Possibly they will bring charges of murder – and possibly even charges of war crimes,” said Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker, reporting from the Dutch city of Nieuwegein where the report was released.

Russia responded by denouncing the international investigation as “biased” and “politically motivated”.

“It has become the norm for our western colleagues to arbitrarily designate a guilty party and invent the desired results,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

The Buk missile system used to shoot down the plane fired one missile from the Ukraine village of Pervomaysk and later returned to Russian territory, said the prosecutors from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.

It was not clear whether an order had been given for fighters to launch the missile, or whether they had acted independently, prosecutors said.

They told a news conference in Nieuwegein the investigative team had identified 100 people who were described as being of interest to them, but had not yet been formally identified as suspects.

“Based on results of the criminal investigation it may be concluded that MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014 by a 9M38 series missile launched by a Buk system, which was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and, after the launch, was subsequently returned to the Russian Federation territory,” said Wilbert Paulissen, lead detective with the Dutch police.

A civilian investigation by the Dutch Safety Board also concluded last year that MH17 was hit by a Buk missile fired from eastern Ukraine, but Moscow denied that pro-Russian rebels were responsible.

Repeating those denials on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “First-hand radar data identified all flying objects which could have been launched or were in the air over the territory controlled by rebels at that moment.”

“The data are clear-cut … there is no rocket. If there was a rocket, it could only have been fired from elsewhere,” he said.

Investigators said they had not had access to the new radar images on which Moscow was basing its latest statements.

{{Relatives demand justice}}

Victims’ families were informed of the findings shortly before the prosecutors’ news conference.

At the time of the incident on July 17, 2014, pro-Russian separatists were fighting Ukrainian government forces in the region.

The Boeing 777 broke apart in midair, flinging wreckage over several kilometres of fields in rebel-held territory.

Speaking before the news conference, Silene Fredriksz – whose 23-year-old son Bryce was on the plane with his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers – said the victims’ families want justice.

“As a family we are impatient. We want to know what happened, how it happened and why? We want those responsible to face justice,” she said.

The downing of the airliner played a significant part in a decision by the European Union and United States to impose sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

Ukrainian and western officials, citing intelligence intercepts, have blamed pro-Russian rebels for the incident. Russia has always denied direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict and rejects responsibility for the destruction of MH17.

Prosecutors have sought legal assistance from Moscow since October 2014, and visited in person for a week in July.

“Russian authorities have offered information in the past, but have not answered all questions,” they said in a statement at the time.

{World leaders pay tribute after former Israeli leader and Nobel laureate dies in his sleep following stroke.}

Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres died on Wednesday, some two weeks after suffering a major stroke.

The 93-year-old died in his sleep at around 3:00am (0000 GMT), Peres’ doctor Rafi Walden, who is also Peres’s son-in-law, told AFP news agency. Israeli media also confirmed the former Israeli president’s death.

“Our father’s legacy has always been the future. Look to tomorrow, he taught us,” said Chemi Peres, Peres’ son, in a press conference.

“Today, we sense that the entire nation of Israel and the global community mourns this great loss,” he added. “We share this pain together.”

Officials said that Peres’ body would lie in state at the Knesset, or parliament, on Thursday to allow the public to pay final respects.

His funeral was set for Friday at Mount Herzl, the country’s national cemetery in Jerusalem. Yona Bartal, a former personal aide to Peres, said the arrangements were in line with his wishes.

The Israeli foreign ministry said that US President Barack Obama, former US President Bill Clinton and his wife and current presidential hopeful Hillary, the pope and the UK’s Prince Charles are among those who will attend Peres’ funeral.

Obituary: Shimon Peres 1923 – 2016

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “deep personal grief” in a statement in which he called Peres “the beloved of the nation”. Netanyahu is expected to deliver a personal message later on Wednesday, and the Israeli cabinet will convene for a special mourning session.

Al Jazeera analyst Yehia Ghanem on Shimon Peres
Obama was quick to pay his respects, remembering Peres as “our dear friend” and “the essence of Israel itself”.

“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people,” a White House statement said.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “Shimon Peres was, above all, a man of peace. My deepest condolences to his loved ones and to the people of Israel on his passing.”

However, Al Jazeera’s Middle East analyst Yehia Ghanem said that many would remember Peres as a “war criminal”, especially in light of the 1996 Qana massacre. In that Israeli attack on a southern Lebanese village, at least 106 people were killed. Peres was then prime minister.

“People who are praising him [Peres] supported Israel and all of its crimes throughout its history,” Ghanem said. “The fact he ordered this massacre in Qana was and still is considered a war crime.”

Speaking of Peres’ legacy, Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian peace negotiator, told Al Jazeera: “This is a man who, from the very beginning, was a war criminal.”

Buttu added: “He’s somebody who believed in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, somebody who when he had positions of power made sure that Palestinian land that was occupied – not captured – was then turned over and made into Jewish Israeli settlements, which are war crimes under international law.”

Last remaining founding father

Peres had been in hospital near Tel Aviv since September 13, when he was admitted feeling unwell and suffered the stroke with internal bleeding.

Israel has been on edge over the health of its last remaining founding father, who had been under sedation and respiratory support in intensive care.

Peres held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014.

Shimon Peres: ‘Self-victimising Palestinians’

He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo Accords, which envisioned an independent Palestinian state.

After suffering the stroke, he received an outpouring of support from across the world, including from Pope Francis, US President Obama, the Clinton family, Donald Trump, Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called him “tireless in seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians”.

Heart trouble

There had been signs of improvement last week.

On September 18, Peres’ office said doctors planned to gradually reduce his sedation and respiratory support to judge his response.

His personal physician Walden had said at the time that Peres had seen “very slow, moderate improvement”.

But on Tuesday, a source close to Peres said his condition had taken a downturn and he was “fighting for his life”.

In January, Peres was treated in hospital twice because of heart trouble.

In the first case, the hospital said he had suffered a “mild cardiac event” and underwent catheterisation to widen an artery.

He was rushed to hospital a second time only days later with chest pains and an irregular heartbeat.

Peres had sought to maintain an active schedule despite his age, particularly through events related to his Peres Center for Peace.

When leaving hospital on January 19, Peres said that he was keen to get back to work.

“I’m so happy to return to work, that was the whole purpose of this operation,” he said.

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then British-mandated Palestine when he was 11. He joined the Zionist movement and met David Ben-Gurion, who would become his mentor and Israel’s first prime minister.

Peres became director general of the nascent defence ministry at just 29. He was also seen as a driving force in the development of Israel’s undeclared nuclear programme.

{After massive aerial bombardment, Syrian forces mobilise for ground operation to “wipe out” rebels and retake key city.}

Syrian forces launched a major ground offensive on a rebel-held district of Aleppo, the biggest assault yet in a new campaign aimed at wiping out rebel forces and retaking a city that’s key to ending the five-year war.

Syrian state TV said on Tuesday that troops captured Farafra district, near Aleppo’s famous citadel, and fighting was under way near the historic core of the northern city.

A military official told AFP news agency that government forces “retook control of all of the Farafra district” and were now “demining the area”.

The official said the advance “comes as a continuation of the military operation that was announced that includes an aerial component and an artillery and ground component”.

Aleppo has endured the worst aerial onslaught since the start of the war in 2011 with more than 400 people killed, hundreds of others wounded, and buildings flattened since a short-lived ceasefire broke down last week.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters told Al Jazeera that pro-government forces, including Shia militias, carried out “a ground push” in the Bab al-Antakya district.

“They [rebels] said that they repelled that attack and killed a number of pro-government militia” during fighting that lasted a couple of hours, said Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from across the Turkish border in Gaziantep.

Aleppo: Bodies litter floor at makeshift hospital

Stratford said a website run by the FSA reported two attacks in which 11 pro-government militiamen and Syrian soldiers were killed by rebel fighters, “keeping them from moving forward”.

It was not possible to independently confirm any of the claims.

In the district of Handarat, north of Aleppo, government forces also advanced against the rebels, he said.

Government fighter jets backed by Russia’s air force also continued to target the city and its outskirts. Video obtained by Al Jazeera showed the latest air strikes on Tuesday with rescue crews rushing to the scene to pull people from under the rubble.

Residents said bunker-busting bombs were dropped in the al-Shaar neighbourhood killing 24 civilians, including 15 people from the same family.

The historic quarter of Aleppo, one of the world’s oldest cities, is home to the Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO world heritage site. The 11th-century minaret of the famed mosque collapsed in April 2013 during fighting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, confirmed that government forces were advancing on the old quarter.

“There was intense shelling earlier. It seemed the [government] was preparing for the attack,” said Ibrahim Alhaj, a member of the Syrian Civil Defence, volunteer first-responders also known as the “White Helmets”.

He added news from the front line suggests a large mobilisation of pro-government militias in the old city.

Syria announced on Thursday it would carry out a major offensive following the collapse of the ceasefire [EPA]

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Syrian military official in Damascus told the AP news agency that operations in Aleppo will continue until “terrorists” in the eastern parts of the city are “wiped out”.

If President Bashar al-Assad’s forces do recapture the ancient city it would mark a major turning point in the war, which has killed an estimated 400,000 people and displaced millions.

“It will be a big victory for the regime if it takes Aleppo,” opposition activist Mahmoud al-Basha told Al Jazeera. “Aleppo is the biggest stronghold for FSA. There are no more cities for the FSA in Syria – they lost Homs, there is no FSA in Hama and Damascus.”

Syria’s army announced an operation to retake the opposition-held east of Aleppo city following the collapse of the Russia-US orchestrated truce. Al Jazeera’s Stratford said people he spoke to “are literally terrified” at the prospect of a ground operation.

“They feel very helpless. They have completely given up on any kind of diplomatic effort. They have completely lost faith in what the international community is saying,” he said.

At least 250,000 people still live in the besieged part of Aleppo.