Mass killing reported in Aleppo as Syria troops near victory

President Bashar al Assad’s forces, backed by Russian Federation, have recaptured large swathes of the city in recent days and, according to state TV, it now holds 98% of neighbourhoods previously occupied by rebels.

Another round of Russia-U.S. talks on ending the bloody conflict made no progress at the weekend as the Syrian President’s forces closed in on the last pockets of rebel resistance in Syria’s second city, Aleppo.

Numerous empty buses that were to be used for the evacuation were still parked near the Salaheddin section of the city.

“The battle of Aleppo has reached its end”, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Aleppo’s fall would deal a stunning blow to rebels trying to remove Assad from power.

A commander with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group said Aleppo was a moral victory for anti-government fighters.

Later on Tuesday, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said an “arrangement” had been “achieved on the ground” to allow militants to quit the war-wracked city.

Turkey said that under the agreement civilians would first evacuate, followed by a withdrawal of rebel groups.

After meeting with Germany’s Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday, Francois Hollande said that 120,000 people were being “held hostage” in Aleppo.

“We can agree on that with the Americans very quickly”, said Sergei Lavrov. East Aleppo has been under siege since mid-July, with food supplies dwindling. It will go on.

“The reports we had are of people being shot in the street trying to flee and shot in their homes”, Colville said, adding that the United Nations had the names of the 82.

The streets of Aleppo were strewn with destroyed buildings and dead bodies Monday after several areas of the besieged Syrian city were captured by government forces, a humanitarian group reported on social media late Monday.

United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein called on the worldwide community to demand Syria allow monitoring of its treatment of people fleeing eastern Aleppo, warning that populations of other rebel-held towns could face the same fate.

But on Monday, US officials said their Russian counterparts had rejected a proposal for an immediate cessation of hostilities to allow for safe departures. “We’re living the final moments before victory”, a Syrian military source told AFP.

British surgeon Dr David Nott says “we only need a temporary cessation of 60 minutes to save them all”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday urged those fighting in Aleppo to do all they can to protect and spare civilian lives.

Pro-government forces have launched a ferocious assault on Aleppo’s few remaining opposition-held neighborhoods, trapping thousands of civilians under unrelenting heavy fire.

On Sunday alone, state news agency SANA said, 8,000 people fled rebel districts through government-run crossings.

“They’ve killed more than half a million people, so that’s got be a major deterrent right there”.