TEMPO.CO, Aleppo – Activists from the Red Crescent and a local opposition coincil gathered around 31 dead bodies from the frontline as shooting stopped in one of Aleppo’s most heated war zone on Tuesday, April 16. This was the first cease fire after months of intense gunfighting in the city, which is located north of Damascus.
The Aleppo Media Centre, which belonged to the opposition party, stated that the majority of the bodies, including children’s, had been lying on the streets and between buildings for months. A monitoring group in Aleppo said that they found three bodies with their hands tied, and four bodies were burned.
A video taken by the Media Center showed blue, grey and white body bags filled with dead bodies being unloaded on a school yard by men who wore masks and gloves.
"[The bodies] were lying and rotting in no-man's-land. With the weather changing, I think the other side [government troops] starts to worry about plagues and might consider a truce," a rebel commander stated. "[The bodies] were mostly local residents. Some had fled and came back to check on their houses located at the front line, and were shot by the government snipers."
Most of Aleppo, which was once a cosmopolitan commercial hub, have fallen to the hands of Sunni Islamist opposition forces in the two-year uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. However, government forces still manage to control the key districts.
Reuters | Abdul Manan
