Syria denies claims it is arresting people fleeing Aleppo

The Syrian government assault has driven rebels from more than a third of the territory they held in eastern Aleppo in a matter of days, threatening to crush the rebellion in its most important urban stronghold.

The Britain-based monitor said dozens more were wounded in the “fierce” shelling, and many people were stuck under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The area had no functioning hospitals, food stocks were almost exhausted and it was likely that thousands of more people would flee from their homes if the fighting keeps on going in the coming days.

Rebel groups in Syria’s war-ravaged Aleppo put up a united front on Thursday in a final effort to prevent regime forces from seizing the whole city.

The rebels say they won’t withdraw from the area, suggesting they plan to fight on against an assault that’s only intensifying.

He said there was no longer any properly functioning hospital in eastern Aleppo.

At least 26 civilians, including seven children, have been killed by artillery rounds in eastern Aleppo as they fled a government ground offensive.

The activist-operated Halab News Network posted footage of the aftermath of the airstrikes, saying at least 20 from three different families were killed. At one point, a warplane roamed overhead.

On Wednesday, two days after the entire northern portion of the rebel enclave was recaptured, the government ground offensive and aerial bombardment continued.

A spokesperson for the Syrian military immediately denied the claims made by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), insisting people fleeing rebel-held areas are being checked in case “terrorists” are among them. He called the situation in Aleppo “deeply alarming and chilling”.

Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokeswoman, said only 1 percent of United Nations aid was being directed to Deir al-Zor, where she said at least 200,000 people were trapped by Islamic State militants and in need of supplies. A solution has evaded the UN Security Council for years, with Russian Federation using its veto power as one of five permanent members to block several resolutions.

Aleppo has been the epicentre of the civil war that began in Syria in 2011 after the regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests around the country. “[Washington] is completely shut out of these talks, and doesn’t even know what’s going on in Ankara”, said one opposition figure who asked not to be identified.

Media captionLina Shamy spoke to BBC Arabic from inside rebel-held Eastern Aleppo.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruffled feathers in Moscow after he said on Tuesday that Ankara sent its forces into Syria to help end “the rule of the cruel Assad”.

The Observatory reported that regime forces were detaining and questioning hundreds of those fleeing rebel-held areas for the comparative safety of regime-controlled districts.