Syrian government forces have recaptured half the former rebel stronghold of east Aleppo, a monitor said yesterday, in an offensive that has left bodies in streets and sparked global outrage.
Rebels put up fierce resistance in the southeastern outskirts of the battered city, but government forces closed in on opposition territory from the east.
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have made swift gains since their offensive against Aleppo - once Syria’s commercial powerhouse - began on November 15.
Tens of thousands of civilians have streamed out of the city’s east, and Russia has renewed calls for humanitarian corridors so aid can enter and desperate residents can leave.
Yesterday, regime forces “consolidated their control” over two eastern districts and were pushing further to squeeze the shrinking rebel enclave, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman.
“After the recent advances, the regime is comfortably in control of half of former rebel territory in the city’s east,” he said.
Earlier yesterday, anti-government fighters had successfully rolled back regime gains in Sheikh Saeed on Aleppo’s southeastern outskirts.
Sheikh Saeed borders the last remaining parts of Aleppo still in rebel hands - a collection of densely populated residential neighbourhoods where thousands have sought refuge from advancing regime forces.
In preparation for street-by-street fighting in these districts, hundreds of fighters from Syria’s elite Republican Guard and Fourth Division arrived in Aleppo yesterday, the Observatory said.
It said four civilians were killed in rebel rocket fire on government-held areas, bringing to 59 the civilian toll in the city’s west.
More than 300 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the offensive began, according to the Observatory.
Intermittent clashes yesterday rocked residential buildings on Aleppo’s eastern edges, as advancing regime forces seek to secure the road towards the airport.
AFP’s correspondent in east Aleppo said ferocious clashes could be heard in the Tariq al-Bab district, where regime forces advanced on Thursday.
Civilians had already totally emptied the adjacent neighbourhood of Al-Shaar, where a few rebels manned positions in front of shuttered shops and bakeries.
Vegetable stalls - empty for months because of a devastating government siege - now lay shattered by heavy artillery fire.
The escalating violence has been met with international outrage, including a UN warning that east Aleppo could become “a giant graveyard”.
Moscow has proposed setting up four humanitarian corridors into east Aleppo.
“We have informed the UN in New York and Geneva that there is no longer a problem with the delivery of humanitarian cargo to eastern Aleppo,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Rome, according to a RIA Novosti news agency transcript.
He said the UN was still coming up with a possible plan, and that approval from Syrian authorities remained essential.
Moscow has announced several humanitarian pauses in Aleppo to allow civilians to flee, but until the recent escalation, only a handful did so.
East Aleppo’s residents have been wary of previous such offers because of Russian support for Assad, including its bombing campaign in support of his forces launched in September 2015.
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