A spokesman for an al-Qaeda-linked militant faction in Syria has rejected a proposal by a UN envoy to withdraw their fighters from eastern Aleppo, where an estimates 275,000 people are trapped in a government siege.
Hossam al-Shafai of the Fatah al-Sham Front wrote on Twitter on Friday that the group is ``determined to break the siege'' on the city's opposition-held neighbourhoods.
Russian and Syrian government forces have been bombarding the city's east for months on the grounds that they are fighting terrorism. Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Thursday urged the group's estimated 900 fighters inside the city to leave in exchange for a halt to Russian and Syrian government bombardment.
Meanwhile in Russia the lower house of parliament has ratified a treaty with Syria that allows the Russian military to stay indefinitely in the Mideast country.
The Kremlin-controlled State Duma voted unanimously on Friday to ratify the deal, which formalises Russia's military presence at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia.
The move comes as a show of support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.
