Uneasy calm in Aleppo as partial truce declared

Some residents said they had ventured on to the streets for the first time in days after the 48-hour "regime of calm" began early on Thursday, BBC reported.

This cautious and uneasy calm that has spread across Aleppo is due to the recent inclusion of the city in the Russian-American Syria ceasefire and Assad’s announcement on his state-owned TV channel that he will adhere to the new inclusion.

"The general command of the declared a period of calm in Aleppo for 48 hours starting from one o-clock in the morning on Thursday (22:00 GMT Wednesday)," Syrian state TV reported.

The announcement of the truce comes after the UN’s envoy for Syria on May 4 made a plea for a halt in fighting in the second city of Aleppo, warning that failure to do so could lead to a "catastrophic" outcome.

"The alternative is truly quite catastrophic, because we could see 400,000 people moving towards the Turkish border," Anadolu Agency quoted Staffan de Mistura as saying after talks in Berlin with France and Germany’s foreign ministers.

Russian and Assad warplanes have launched more than 300 airstrikes onto Aleppo, leaving more than 200 civilians killed and hundreds of injured, according to the international organization of Doctors Without Borders.