United Nations warns of ‘giant graveyard’ as thousands flee Aleppo fighting

Also on Wednesday, Syrian state media said two children were among the eight killed in shelling on the city’s governement western neighborhoods, which it blamed on the rebels.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called for the meeting on Tuesday.

Once known as the “Jewel of Syria”, it has been subject to some of the most brutal fighting in the five-year-long civil war. He urged the U.N.to quickly provide humanitarian aid to them, noting that the Castello road, a key highway leading to the city, is now safe for humanitarian convoys.

Aleppo is seen as a vital strategic prize for the Syrian government as it is the last city still holding out against President Assad’s regime and it controls trade and military supply routes to Turkey.

The government has trumpeted its advances in Aleppo, pledging victory is near.

The activist-operated Halab News Network posted footage of the aftermath of the airstrikes, saying at least 20 from three different families were killed.

While rebel lines collapsed unexpectedly in parts of eastern Aleppo at the weekend, sources on the government side say the next phase could be more hard as they try to take more densely populated areas of the city.

Russia, Assad’s most powerful worldwide ally whose air force has pounded rebels for more than a year, said it hoped the Aleppo situation could be resolved by the end of the year. “Many people are escaping to government areas”, she said, rushing back to her patient in labour, in one of the few functioning clinics in the enclave.

O´Brien said the United Nations and its partners were trying their best to help those displaced by the fighting across the city, and stood ready to bring aid into eastern Aleppo and to carry out medical evacuations if they managed to get access.

But the BBC’s Lyse Doucet in Damascus says the Syrian government and its allies are unlikely to heed calls to halt an offensive it describes as a campaign against terrorism. He called the situation in Aleppo “deeply alarming and chilling”.

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to examine the unfolding situation in eastern Aleppo. “They ask for a plate, or some sheets”, Alhamdo said.

It also would bolster his position and momentum just as a new United States administration is taking hold, freeing thousands of his troops and allied militiamen to move on to other battles around the country.

“People here are desperate”.

Russian Federation and the USA have stood on opposing sides of the conflict. Moscow considers all opposition rebel groups as terrorists, while Washington has supported and armed some of the same groups.

Retaking Aleppo will be the biggest military victory for President Assad since this war began, but it will not end the war.

“The Russians and Turks are talking without the USA now”.

The loss of the city’s east would be a potentially devastating blow for the rebels, who have seen their territory fall steadily under government control since Russian Federation began an intervention to bolster President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015. They have seized control of a huge portion of the northeast.

He pointed to reports from the UN´s humanitarian partners on the ground indicating that “up to 16,000 people have been displaced, many into uncertain and precarious situations”. Their gains drive a wedge through the zone and splits it into two sections.