Russia said the Syrian army was suspending fighting in Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods, but residents and rebels reported no let-up in bombing and shelling of the opposition's ever-shrinking territory.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet on Saturday in Geneva to work out details of a rebel exit from Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods, along with civilians who wanted to leave the city.
Aleppo, once Syria's bustling commercial hub, has been largely divided between a government-held west and a rebel-controlled east since 2012. But government forces are now reported to be in control of about 75 percent of the east after a relentless three-week ground and air assault.
Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat late on Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a five-kilometre (three-mile) route.
But shortly after his announcement, residents told Al Jazeera that jets were still in the skies, machine gun fire could be heard and artillery shells were still falling on the remaining rebel-controlled districts in the southeast.
"The bombardment and shelling is … unbelievable. They are gaining areas every day. Until now the attacks are still ongoing in the city. Just half an hour ago there were two barrel-bomb attacks in Bustan al-Qasr… Warplanes are still in the skies," said Zouhir al-Shimale, a journalist in east Aleppo.
Although there are still many rural areas in rebel hands, Aleppo is their last major urban holdout. The prospect of its fall, following months of government gains elsewhere, has brought Assad closer to victory than at any point since the early months of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and made half of Syrians homeless.
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