SYRIA’S al-Qaida affiliate rejected UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura’s call for them to lay down their arms in Aleppo yesterday.

Hossam al-Shafai of the Levant Conquest Front (LCF) — the rebranded Nusra Front — tweeted the group was “determined to break” Syrian troops’ siege.

Mr De Mistura pledged safe passage to the fundamentalists on Thursday if they would allow remaining civilians held hostage by the LCF to go in peace.