Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said this morning that Russian and Syrian air forces had stopped airstrikes on Aleppo from 10am local time, ahead of the announced "humanitarian pause" scheduled for 20 October.
Russia's Defence Ministry said yesterday that a pause in strikes on Syria's largest city would be in force on Thursday, from 8am until 4pm to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city.
Military experts will meet in Geneva tomorrow to begin work on separating "terrorists" from Syria's opposition, Russia's state Rossiya 24 channel showed Mr Shoigu saying.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
A monitoring group has said Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held areas of Aleppo early this morning ahead of the pause, killing a couple and their three children.
"Russian airplanes carried out intensive air strikes after midnight, targeting many districts of east Aleppo" the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The group, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
Footage shows child being rescued from Aleppo rubble
Syrian government aircraft have also carried out intensive air strikes on rebel areas since the government launched an offensive to recapture the whole city on 22 September.
More than 430 people have been killed in the bombardment of rebel areas, according to the Observatory.
The former commercial and industrial hub has been divided by a front line slicing through its historic heart since rebels seized eastern districts in summer 2012.
One of this morning’s pre-dawn strikes flattened an apartment block in the rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr district, an AFP correspondent reported.
Three children and their parents were killed, the Observatory said.
