Syrian troops push into rebel-held east Aleppo

In less than 24 hours, the regime has seized three districts from the rebels just 13 days into an assault to retake the entire northern city.

Mr Abdel Rahman said he had spoken to some of the 500 civilians, who described being moved from Hanano to various neighbourhoods in west Aleppo.

“It was one of the first cities to be taken by the armed opposition”, he adds.

More than 3,000 civilians, half of them children, have left eastern part of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo over the past few days, the Russian Center for Reconciliation said in a statement.

The SOHR said 6,000 families fled to Kurdish-controlled territory with 4,000 crossing into regime-controlled West Aleppo. The troops have already established control over important blocks and districts in the eastern part of the city.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from the neighborhood Sunday morning, showing workers and soldiers clearing debris against a backdrop of bombed-out buildings on both sides of a wide thoroughfare.

Aftermath of airstrikes in east Aleppo last week.

Western governments and the United Nations have framed the Aleppo onslaught as a vast humanitarian crisis that threatens the safety of at least 250,000 civilians believed trapped in the mayhem.

The government forces have tried to cut off supply lines to rebel-held parts of the city.

The current offensive will either lead to a truce or to rebels being evacuated towards other opposition-held areas in Syria, he says.

The reports come after almost 10,000 civilians fled eastern Aleppo towards government-held districts and the Kurdish-controlled neighbourhood of Sheikh Maksoud, a monitoring group said Sunday. Rebel sources say they are fighting back with difficulty in the face of sustained aerial bombardment.

“Yesterday was the worst day we’ve witnessed since the war started”.

Alison reports: “A Syrian rebel spokesman confirmed the advances and said he anticipated a regime push to capture the adjacent districts, and sever the siege in two”.

“For all the past years, we have resisted with the primitive means we have had, but today we’re resisting Iran and Russian Federation”, he said.

The advances left all of northeast Aleppo under government control.

Balanche agrees: “We know Trump doesn’t really want to invest himself in Syria”.