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Updated 10.45am
SYRIAN REBELS HAVE lost all of the northern neighbourhoods of their stronghold in eastern Aleppo as the army pushes an offensive to retake the battered city according to an on-site monitor.
The army captured the Sakhur, Haydariya and Sheikh Khodr neighbourhoods this morning, while Kurdish forces took the Sheikh Fares district from rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The bombardment appears to have destroyed the home of seven-year-old Syrian girl Bana Alabed who has gained worldwide recognition on foot of the tweets she and her mother have been sending from the besieged city.
The Government has now retaken a third of rebel-held territory in Aleppo, forcing nearly 10,000 civilians to flee as they press their offensive.
In a major breakthrough in the push to retake the whole city, regime forces captured six rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo over the weekend, including Masaken Hanano, the biggest of those in eastern Aleppo.
Yesterday, the 13th day of the operation, they also took control of the adjacent neighbourhoods of Jabal Badra and Baadeeen and captured three others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Inzarat, Al-Sakan al-Shaabi and Ain al-Tall have all returned to regime hands and government forces have made large forays into Sakhur and nearby Haidariya, the monitor said.
It said government forces are “in control of most of the northern part” of Aleppo.
“The rebels have lost at least 30% of the territory they once controlled in Aleppo,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Aircraft
The regime gains came as its aircraft pounded rebel positions and amid heavy clashes between the opposition and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the strategic Sakhur district.
Masaken Hanano was the first district the rebels took in the summer of 2012 in a move that divided the city into a rebel-held east and a regime-controlled west.
Around 250,000 civilians besieged for months in the east have faced serious food and fuel shortages.
The Observatory said that nearly 10,000 civilians had fled east Aleppo overnight Saturday — at least 6,000 to the Kurdish-controlled northern district of Sheikh Maksoud, with the rest fleeing to government-held areas.
“It is the first exodus of this kind from east Aleppo since 2012,” Abdel Rahman said.
Regime sights on Sakhur
Syrian state television broadcast images of a crowd of civilians including women and children gathered around green buses that it said had come to pick them up in Masaken Hanano.
One woman was shown pushing a stroller and many others carried plastic bags on their heads as bombardment was heard in the distance.
Official media said they were taken “by the army to safe areas”.
Yasser al-Youssef, from the rebel group Nureddin al-Zinki, said opposition fighters were consolidating their positions in Sakhur.
“We are strengthening our positions to defend the city and residents, but the aircraft are destroying everything methodically, area by area,” he said of a regime campaign of air strikes.
Sakhur lies on a stretch of just 1.5 kilometres between west Aleppo and Masaken Hanano, now both regime-controlled.
If the regime takes control of Sakhur, east Aleppo would be split in two from north to south, dealing a further blow to the armed opposition.
The latest regime push comes after days of intense bombardment on the east, which has been pounded with air strikes, shelling and barrel bombs.
On Saturday, dozens of families fled Sakhur and Haidariya as regime raids and artillery killed at least 18 civilians in several districts, the Britain-based Observatory said.
At least 225 civilians, including 27 children, have been killed since the government’s latest assault on east Aleppo began on 15 November.
Isis chemical attack
Rebel forces also intensified rocket attacks on western districts overnight, killing at least four civilians and wounding dozens, the Observatory said.
Such attacks have killed a total of 27 civilians since the offensive began, among them 11 children.
The United Nations has a plan to deliver aid to Aleppo and evacuate the sick and wounded, which rebel factions have approved but which Damascus has not yet agreed. Guarantees are also needed from regime ally Russia.
Once a commercial and industrial hub, Aleppo has seen some of the worst fighting in Syria’s nearly six-year war.
The conflict broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, and has since evolved into a complex war involving different factions and foreign powers.
Yesterday, the Turkish army said that 22 pro-Ankara Syrian rebels were hit by a chemical gas attack from Islamic State group jihadists in northern Syria.
The Turkish army is backing the Syrian fighters in an unprecedented cross-border operation it says is targeting both IS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara considers to be a “terrorist” group.
The YPG is a key component of a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance fighting to oust IS from its de facto Syria capital of Raqa, after the jihadist group overran large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.
Syria’s war has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced more than half the population.
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
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wow, she has a truly amazing grasp of the english language and punctuation for a 7 year old
And great internet access for a war torn region.
Supposedly there are 250k here but only 10k were found in the 2/5 of east Aleppo liberated recently. I smell a rat …
Why don’t you go down there and find out…
@turnitalloff: No need for anyone to risk “going down there and find out…” Not when the bbc’s top man in his observatory in Coventry, has all the details available for anyone gullible enough to believe them.
@George O Neill: Could the Syrians delcare a no fly zone over Standing Rock?
@Ian O’ Connor: A great day for the people of East Aleppo, after having lived through this nightmare initiated by US, UK, Saudi etc, supported headhacker Jihadists for so many years.
Western media flagrantly lied about the number of civilians in East Aleppo. There was not “250,000″ – most of the areas liberated today were deserted. Also, it is now proven that the remaining civilians were being held hostage. Apparently this guy in the Syrian Observatory in Coventry needs to buy a new pair of binoculars.
Comrade Pat, your campaign of absurdist misinformation is every bit as hilarious as the Junta-controlled headlines during the Falklands War which falsely claimed (on two separate occasions, no less) that they had sunk HMS Invincible. Or Comical Ali’s claims that no American forces had reached Baghdad, even as American tanks could be heard rumbling in the background…
The US would be stupid to declare a Syria no fly zone. The reality is that the Assad government are the legitimate government in Syria. The legitimate government has legitimately given permission to Russia to help deal with the motley disparate collection of rebels and extremists. If the US was genuinely serious about regime change in Syria they Britain and France would have declared the no fly zone in the first year of the conflict. The US are now between a rock and a hard place. They would not put “boots on the ground” in either Syria or Iraq and now are set retreat into isolation with the arrival of Trump. The real tragedy in all of this is the cynical use of the Peshmerga who will be abandoned by the US. In the next six months the legitimate albeit cruel government will re establish control over its territory and Russia will have extended its sphere of influence.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: As Franklin D Roosevelt once said over the WW2 Russian invasion of Poland, “It is hard to make an omlette without breaking a few eggs”. He turned a blind eye to Stalin’s excesses in eastern Europe and it won’t surprise me if Trump takes the same view over NATO and Europe.
‘Legitimate government’ Muahahahahaha, whatever next, going to tell us Assad was democratically elected by his adoring population?
Great to see a girl my daughter’s age twittering considering she won’t have a clue how to do it. Propaganda probably produced in a studio in the west.
@prop joe: propaganda is a weird term to use, it’s not as if it’s a false idea that a child in Aleppo would be in danger of dying and afraid as a result? I certainly can’t say if this twitter account is genuine or not, it’s just calling it propaganda is decidedly odd. Whose agenda would this serve? Who would need convincing that children are dying in Aleppo?
“The Government has now retaken a third of rebel-held territory in Aleppo, forcing nearly 10,000 civilians to flee as they press their offensive”.
This lovely little line epitomises the author’s stance on the conflict. The 10,000 civilians that the AFP pretend to care so deeply about are finally escaping to GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED areas of the city. They have been liberated.
@Piotrek Król:
Only 4,000 of those who fled went to government-held areas of the city. The remainder fled away from government forces. So about 60% of those who fled are moving towards rebel-held territory rather than going towards their ‘liberators’.
It’s almost as if people would be hesitant to flee towards a military that has been bombing their schools, hospitals and apartment blocks with improvised explosives.
@Jason Culligan:
Aleppo – more hospitals and schools per square mile than anywhere else on earth.
@Piotrek Król:
So no comment on the fact that you claimed that 10,000 civilians fled towards government controlled territory when this is an inaccurate representation of the facts?
@Jason Culligan: They are fleeing where they can, I doubt many would run towards the front lines… only where they have a fair idea they will be safe and safe from being shot while fleeing by ISIS and their hangers on.
She has a great grasp of the English language and its good to see she has Internet access. The will of God I tell you. You are a communist loving heathen if you don’t believe this.
Scarlett for Cianan Brennan on this, absolute morto for ya!!..whats Santa bringing ya?..This “little girls” account is about as close to Allepo as the BBC Syrian observatory in Coventry!!
Great journalism Cianan! You found a fake twitter account that looks slightly authentic, fair play to you son, KEEP PUSHING THAT HORRIBLE NARRATIVE THATS PLAYED ITS PART IN SEEING THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE MURDERED AND MILLIONS TRAUMATISED.
Shame on you all at thejournal.ie, as you can see NOBODY IS BUYING THE CRAP YOYR STILL PEDDLING ON SYRIA!
@Lord Clanricarde:
In this brave new world of alternative media, it is so easy for groups to make up these twitter accounts and the are guaranteed that some of these online sites will run with it. There is no checking, no editing, no common sense. Put a picture of a child on it and your in.
@Craba: “you’re in”
”The Government are forcing nearly 10,000 civilians to flee, with 4000 fleeing to government-held areas”.
How does that work?
@Sum Yung Guy:
It doesn’t. It would be more accurate to state that the advance of government forces has opened up a corridor for 4,000 civilians to flee to government-controlled areas while their advance has forced another 6,000 to flee deeper into rebel-held territory.
At least, that’s what a non-biased writer would say.
@Sum Yung Guy: Most civilians fleeing rebel held East Aleppo went to the Kurdish part of the city, Sheikh Maqsood. The Kurds and the Syrian government are fighting on the same side, but residents from east Aleppo fear government forces more than the Kurds.
David David David, watch your terminology. The Putinbots, RT-zombies and other useful idiots will red-thumb you to oblivion unless you suggest Assad’s regime is anything other than a benevolent utopia.
Hopefully they continue and take back Golan heights,which was taken by Israel,who have signed contracts for US oil companies to drill.
@@mdmak33: What makes you think that the Syria wants to start a war with Israel. The Golan Heights is a UN buffer zone between the countries.
@@mdmak33: If asked the people in Golan heights would probably prefer to be in Israel rather than Syria
They are not Palestinians by the way mainly Druse
@@mdmak33: they wouldn’t dare, sure our Irish army are there on a peacekeeping mission
@@mdmak33:
The SAA can barely take on rebels with little practical training and 60 year old Soviet hardware. I doubt they’re in any condition to take on the highly trained and well equipped Israeli Armed Forces in any capacity.
Not to worry Jason, I’m sure the Ayatollahs can lend Assad some fake fighter jets and photoshopped missiles to smite those wicked Israelites.
5 years of fighting, jesus the country must be nothing but rubble, and God love to 10s of thousands who have died and God help the rest living there, it’s a catastrophe, you would think with the super power countries who get involved this war would be over
@Mick Hannigan: it all depends on which superpower countries are you talking about? if it’s US/UK/France/Turkey/Israel then they’re the fundamental reason the country is in the state it’s in right now. Russia and Iran are sorting it out since late last year and it’s only a matter of time at this stage before all the western backed terrorists are wiped out in Syria
@TDV:
“Russia and Iran are sorting it out since late last year and it’s only a matter of time at this stage before all the western backed terrorists are wiped out in Syria”
Russia are also a part of the problem. Like it or not, Assad was an unpopular leader who used brute force to subdue dissent in his country. Their unrestricted bombing of places like Aleppo has left the city in ruin and driven more people towards the rebel faction. Even the Russians have questioned the legitimacy of Assad in a post-conflict Syria even if the SAA wins thanks to the divisiveness of the conflict and the damage done so far.
The conflict will last for many years. The Kurds have established their own autonomous region in northern Syria and, with the backing of Turkey of all places, they’re willing to take on the SAA to defend it. The insurgency will also rage for many years as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown.
If you think that Russia, Iran, Syria or even the US can end this conflict soon you’re very mistaken.
@Mick Hannigan: But they still have the interweb and twitter so it’s not all bad now is it ?
Broadband speeds are probably better than in Athlone
@Mick Hannigan: Strange as it might seem, there are many areas of Syria which are relatively untouched by the civil war. I learned this last year when I attended a talk by a Syrian film maker, Hanna Karim, who explained the desperate day to day situation of people on all sides living in Syria’s torn districts.
What surprised me and indeed most people present was the fact that Aleppo was a city divided by numerous factions. Prior to hearing Mr. Karim’s presentation I’d always assumed that from western media sources, Aleppo was entirely under the control of the so called ‘Moderate Muslims’. One should never trust a single source of information, I’d say and especially when it comes from the BBC.
Amazing that the mobile and land networks are still functional are so much destruction. It’s difficult enough keeping a data network functional in a country not a war! Still, if that’s what the media are telling us, it must be so. Tweet ion little one!
Wow Jason you just know everything don’t you?!
In fairness it doesn’t take a load of effort to spot the goofs in Putinbot logic.
Obomba only has a short while left here think off the billions he has spent on this war. If he kept this it at home (the money) trump wouldn’t be pres-elect
Dragged by powers stronger than all Syria into propaganda war for Word domination. Sad…
Only so much wasteland now!
Sarcastic comments about a 7 year old tweeting even though the account makes it clear it is run by her mother.
No comments wishing this family and all the others ones in a war torn country safe.
This place would make you sick at times
@Adam, come out of the fog, neither this girl or her mother are anywhere near Aleppo..This is nothing but Al Qaeda propaganda, kindly being reported and supported by The Journal.
Putinbots aren’t exactly known for their tact or humanity. They judge their worth only on how much horsesh*t they can cram the threads with.
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