Syrian pro-government soldiers run for cover in the '1070' apartment block area, south of al-Hamdaniyah, in eastern Aleppo on November 4, 2016. Syrian rebels fired rockets at one of the eight evacuation corridors opened from opposition-held east Aleppo du
Aleppo, Syria: A Russian-declared ceasefire for opposition-held areas of Syria's second city Aleppo took effect on Friday, but there was little sign that civilians or rebels were heeding calls to leave.
Syrian state media said rebels fired rockets at one of the eight evacuation passages open for civilians and rebels, and accused opposition fighters of preventing residents from fleeing.
Half-way through the 10-hour ceasefire, AFP correspondents in Aleppo said no one had used any of the passages Moscow said were open.
Damascus ally Russia said the 10-hour "humanitarian pause" was an attempt to "prevent senseless casualties."
But a similar, three-day pause last month ended with only a handful of people leaving besieged eastern areas.
Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been devastated by fighting since the rebels seized the east of the city in 2012, turning its historic heart into a battlefield.
The army cut the last supply route into rebel-held territory in July, leaving more than 250,000 civilians still living there without access to basic goods.
The rebels launched a bid to break the siege last week, which they stepped up on Thursday in the hours before the ceasefire began.
Rocket fire on government-held districts killed at least 12 people on Thursday, state media said.
The rebels captured the Dahiyet al-Assad neighbourhood and the village of Minyan west of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The latest deaths brought to nearly 70 the number of civilians killed in government-held areas during the offensive, the Britain-based monitoring group added.
- 'Cheap initiative' -
AFP correspondents in east and west Aleppo reporting fighting and Syrian air strikes on the western outskirts of the city on Friday after several hours of quiet.
There were no reports of fighting or strikes in the east, but state media said rebels had shelled the Castello road crossing leading north from the city, wounding a Syrian reporter.
The Russian defence ministry posted what it said were live feeds of several crossings.
One feed showed barrels painted with the Syrian flag next to a large photograph of President Bashar al-Assad propped up by sandbags.
Another featured waiting ambulances while the third -- which appeared to be filmed from a drone -- showed a line of green coaches.
Civilians in east Aleppo, who have faced weeks of devastating bombardment by the government and Russia, have expressed scepticism about safe passage offers.
The rebels dismissed the latest ceasefire as a ploy by Moscow to deflect international criticism of the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.
"This announcement is worthless... We don't trust the Russians or any of their cheap initiatives," said Yasser al-Youssef, a politburo member of the Nureddin al-Zinki rebel brigade in Aleppo.
- No aid since July -
The United Nations said it would not be attempting any medical evacuations from rebel-held sectors during Friday's ceasefire.
UN agencies tried but failed to organise evacuation convoys during last month's pause.
"The UN will not be involved in any way in the evacuation of civilians from east Aleppo related to this announcement," said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office.
"Medical evacuations can only take place if parties to the conflict take all the necessary measures to provide an enabling environment, which hasn't happened," he told AFP.
"We remain very, very concerned about the humanitarian situation in east Aleppo. There have been no humanitarian supplies reaching the east of the city since early July."
Rights group Amnesty International also criticised the limited ceasefire saying it was "no substitute for unfettered and impartial humanitarian access and ensuring protection of civilians."
Hundreds of people have been killed in the rebel-held sector since the army launched an offensive to recapture it in September.
The death toll has drawn international condemnation of both Damascus and Moscow. The European Union said Russian actions "may amount to war crimes".
More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted with anti-government protests in March 2011.
