Hundreds of men vanish as they flee Aleppo, U.N. official says

BEIRUT – Hundreds of men have disappeared after fleeing rebel-held districts in the Syrian city of Aleppo, the United Nations said Friday, amid claims that armed groups on both sides have abducted and even killed civilians who tried to leave.

Tens of thousands of people have flooded out of east Aleppo since forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad began a final push to retake the city.

In the rebel-held east, as many as 250,000 people had held out for four years through bombardment and siege, often basing that decision on fears of retribution if they left. But after Syrian and Iran-backed pro-Assad fighters swept through three-quarters of the rebel enclave in an offensive that began Nov. 15, most residents no longer had a choice.

The U.N. human rights spokesman, Rupert Coville, said Friday that his office has heard “worrying allegations” that hundreds of men have disappeared in the exodus.

“Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances, we are of course deeply concerned,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, estimates that some 80,000 people have left rebel areas in recent weeks as government forces advanced. Reports suggested that men of fighting age were being separated from their groups by soldiers or militiamen, and that some were being taken to a nearby airport for interrogation.

Washington, which backs the rebels in the war, and Moscow, which supports the Assad regime, have been locked in intense negotiations over the future of civilians and armed fighters who have held out for four years in the city’s east.

During Syria’s 5 1/2-year war, tens of thousands of people have disappeared without a trace, many packed into overcrowded cells where torture is routine and death commonplace.

Prisoners have been conscripted into the Syrian army, which is suffering major manpower shortages.

Coville also said Friday that armed opposition groups have blocked some civilians from leaving – in some cases, firing at them at they tried to flee.

“During the last two weeks, Fatah al-Sham Front and the Abu Amara Battalion are alleged to have abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested the armed groups to leave their neighborhoods, to spare the lives of civilians,” he said. He referred respectively to the al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra and to an Islamist militant group allied with it against the Assad forces.

The Syrian government said Friday that it was ready to resume dialogue with the opposition, but without external intervention or preconditions, according to a statement carried by state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.