Thousands Flee Eastern Aleppo As Syrian Regime Forces Advance

“They don’t have anything to eat or drink, but neither do we”, he says.

The rebel losses suggested it would only be a matter of time before all of east Aleppo – held by the opposition since 2012 – is back in government hands.

“As a president, al-Assad is responsible for the entire actions of the government and the military policy”, Dieckmann said, adding that as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he also bore direct responsibility for the crimes committed in Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in the war-torn country, said it was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighbourhood in eastern Aleppo was struck in two days.

For Assad’s regime, taking Aleppo would be “one of its greatest victories”, Middle East expert Mathieu Guidere says, stressing the city’s “extraordinary historical, political and geopolitical prestige”.

Thousands of civilians have been uprooted during the advance.

The fighting comes a day after Russian Federation said its Syrian allies had captured nearly half of all rebel-held territory in lightning advances along the northern front, forcing rebel forces to retreat to form a new line of defence. That pause collapsed when Jabhat Fatah al Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, militants prevented civilians from fleeing Aleppo and attacked them, prompting an offensive by government forces. On Sunday they captured the neighbouring Jabal Badro district, forcing thousands to flee.

Around 250 000 civilians besieged for months in the east have faced serious food and fuel shortages.

“It is stinging cold, food is scarce and people are shaken in the streets”, Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council in Aleppo, said in a voice text message from east Aleppo.

Western states have condemned the bombing campaign that has killed thousands of people since the major offensive to recapture Aleppo was launched in September.

The capture of Masaken Hanano, the largest rebel-held neighbourhood in eastern Aleppo, and the Sakhour neighbourhood, has enabled the Syrian army to isolate neighbourhoods in northeastern Aleppo from the central and southern ones.

“There is great, great pressure on the fighters in Aleppo and there is very ferocious shelling and heavy attrition of people and ammunition”, said the rebel fighter.

The center said it deployed additional 150 field kitchens to distribute hot meals among civilians fleeing the embattled city.

The Observatory said the Haidariya and Sheikh Khodr districts also fell, while Kurdish fighters took the Sheikh Fares neighbourhood from rebels.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, saying the assault “is threatening a humanitarian catastrophe”.

More than 300,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria’s conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.