Syria rebels call for truce as Aleppo losses mount

James Prince, President of the Democracy Council – which works with US-backed Syrian opposition groups – said a lack of USA support has left the opposition with no leverage to negotiate and is forcing them to surrender and leave Aleppo to stop the bombing.

In less than a month, a blistering offensive by Syria’s army and allied militia has overrun most of rebel territory in the city, shrinking it by more than three quarters during the last two weeks and restricting the rebels to a handful of neighbourhoods.

The fierce bombardments have forced most of the city’s hospitals to halt operations, while most academic activities have been indefinitely suspended.

It would cap a string of government successes over the past year and provide a turning point in a war that has killed more than a quarter of a million people, displaced more than half of the country’s population and defied all global efforts for a political solution. They agree that civilians need to be evacuated and be free from the dangers of the ongoing civil war that resulted to dozens of casualties every day.

Assad’s government has said a truce is only possible after a full rebel withdrawal, and opposition fighters have rejected any talk of abandoning Aleppo. Egeland said Syrian authorities say they have registered 30,000 in their areas.

Rebel-held districts in east Aleppo are falling fast, faster than expected.

The city’s surgeon-general Fawwaz Hajjo told AFP that seven children were among 12 more people killed on Wednesday in rebel rocket attacks.

Russian Federation is a key ally of the Syrian government and has been carrying out airstrikes for more than a year in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces. “That’s small, not enough for breakfast”, he said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops captured large swaths of the district following intense clashes.

A United Nations official said about 31,500 people from east Aleppo have been displaced around the entire city over the past week, with hundreds more seen on the move on Wednesday.

Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has detained dozens of people in and around Palmyra after capturing the ancient city from government forces.

Opposition groups in eastern Aleppo previously gave mixed signals on how to organise evacuations, but now have dropped their conditions and are simply asking for a pause in the fighting to allow people to leave, Egeland added. Since 2012, Aleppo has been divided between rebels in the east and regime forces in the west.

There are also reports of deals to allow rebel fighters to retreat, including from the Old City.

The leaders of the six major Western nations condemned Russian Federation and Iran for supporting the Syrian government.

Syria’s military said earlier Monday that it has gained control of 98 percent of eastern Aleppo.

Previously, the Syrian government and its ally Russian Federation had rejected a cease-fire for the battered city, keeping up the military offensive that has forced rebel retreats and massive displacement of Aleppo civilians.

The Russian foreign minister said that Western states have not proposed any concrete steps to solve the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo. He said the collapse of the Sheik Saeed neighborhood meant the loss of the rebel enclave’s last mill and grain warehouse.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now stands ready to take back full control of Aleppo, which was Syria’s most populous city before the war and would constitute his greatest prize so far after almost six years of conflict.

The government’s ground offensive was preceded by an intensive bombing campaign that knocked out medical facilities and left the civilian population in eastern Aleppo reeling from the onslaught.

That includes residents who had sought refuge in the government-held west of the city and a Kurdish-controlled enclave, but not those who fled to remaining rebel territory, it said.

On Friday, Russian officials said more than 1,000 rebels have surrendered.

It said 47 of its 57 staff are stuck in rebel-held areas and that it has lost contact with majority.