DAMASCUS, SYRIA — (CNN) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has insisted his forces must continue “to clean” Aleppo, even as diplomats prepare for a weekend of meetings aimed at halting the bloodshed in rebel-held areas of city.
A renewed Syrian army offensive against eastern Aleppo, supported by Russian air power, has claimed hundreds of civilian lives in recent days and prompted Western powers to accuse Assad and his backers of war crimes.
But Assad, in an interview conducted in English with Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on Thursday, said that the Syrian government has no option but to press on with its offensive.
“… You have to clean. You have to keep cleaning this area and to push the terrorists to Turkey … to go back to where they come from, or to kill them.
“There’s no other option. But Aleppo is going to be a very important springboard to do this move,” he said.
“It’s going to be the springboard, as a big city, to move to other areas, to liberate other areas from the terrorists. This is the importance of Aleppo now.”
His remarks come as the United States, Russia and regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar prepare to meet Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland, for talks on Syria.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will then meet “key regional and international partners” in London on Sunday for further talks on ending the violence in Syria and the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries, the State Department said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told CNN earlier this week that he hoped Saturday’s discussion might “launch a serious dialogue on the basis of the principles contained in the Russian-American deal,” the ceasefire agreement that collapsed last month.
Aleppo has been the scene of fierce fighting between regime forces and rebels who have clung on in its besieged eastern portion. It has become a focal point in the 5-year Syrian civil war which, according to a United Nations estimate released earlier this year, already has cost around 400,000 lives.
The anti-government factions fighting for Alleppo — dubbed terrorists by Assad — include one-time al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, previously known as the Nusra Front. But also on the battlefield are members of several other groups that have been supported by the West, including Free Syrian Army fighters.
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Kerry: Aleppo strikes should be probed as war crimes
The Syrian government — backed by Russian warplanes — has been pounding Aleppo with regular airstrikes.
As many as a quarter of a million people are trapped by the fighting in and around the city, where aid agencies say a mounting humanitarian crisis is worsening by the day.
The ongoing siege has prompted strong protests from a number of countries and groups who accuse Syria and Russia of war crimes against Aleppo’s beleaguered population.
Shelling and airstrikes this week have killed dozens of civilians in Aleppo, most in the east but some also in the government-held western portion of the city.
The deputy special UN envoy for Syria, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, told reporters Thursday that the situation in eastern Aleppo was “dire,” with hundreds of people, including children, in urgent need of medical evacuation.
Last week US Secretary of State John Kerry said Russian and Syrian military strikes against civilians and medical facilities in Aleppo should be investigated as war crimes.
“Russia and the (Syrian) regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals and medical facilities and children and women,” Kerry said.
French President Francois Hollande and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have also called for an International Criminal Court investigation into possible war crimes committed in the city by Russia and Syria.
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