Russia and Syria have halted air strikes on Aleppo in preparation for a humanitarian pause in the fighting scheduled for later this week. The pause will allow civilian and militants safe passage out of the besieged city.
The bombing halt scheduled for Thursday will be for eight hours only. It's designed to allow anti-government rebel fighters to withdraw from Aleppo.
Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra front are believed to be largest rebel faction still entrenched in the eastern half of the city. Russia's Defense Minister said Syrian army units will withdraw to give the rebels a safe corridor out of Aleppo.
Syrian officials are telling CCTV that this truce will be different from previous attempts at a ceasefire. This time the Syrian government's priority will getting the most radical group out of Aleppo in the hope of separating extremist factions from moderate ones. A government source in Damascus said this might be a final chance for the opposition fighters to distance themselves from Jabhat al-Nusra.
In the meantime, state television continues to report that ISIL has been moving fighters and their families from Iraq into Syria. The TV channel quoted a source in ISIL's self-proclaimed capital, Raqqa, saying that ten buses along with another twelve vehicles have arrived to in the city.
The reports say the new arrivals and their families were given apartments-suggesting ISIL's reinforcements from Iraq might be settling in for a final siege. The flats were confiscated from Syrian residents who fled Raqqa after ISIL's takeover.
Security agencies here expect a surge in the number of ISIL fighters into Syria as Iraqi forces advance on Mosul-ISIL's last stronghold in Iraq.
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