BEIRUT — Syria’s military command said it would scale back its bombardment of the contested city of Aleppo on Wednesday to allow civilians to evacuate besieged rebel-held neighborhoods.

The announcement, broadcast on state TV, followed 16 days of airstrikes and shelling that killed over 300 civilians and damaged hospitals and water facilities. Satellite images released Wednesday by the United Nations show the scale of the destruction since a US-Russia brokered cease-fire collapsed two weeks ago.

The government is accused by opponents and international observers of using violence to forcibly depopulate areas seen as disloyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Doctors inside the city’s besieged eastern neighborhoods said there were fewer attacks on Wednesday, after two weeks of airstrikes in which Russian and Syrian government jets targeted underground hospitals.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 316 civilians in eastern Aleppo have been killed in the past two weeks’ violence.

The government has insisted that rebels inside east Aleppo have been preventing civilians from leaving via the safe corridors it demarcated in July with the Russian military.

Associated Press