Iraq News

Major opposition withdrawal from more Aleppo districts: monitor

Syrian opposition fighters on Monday (December 12th) withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, AFP reported.

"The battle of Aleppo has reached its end. It is just a matter of a small period of time, no more, no less... it is a total collapse," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among the neighbourhoods from which opposition fighters withdrew was Bustan al-Qasr, once one of the most fortified districts under opposition control.

The withdrawal leaves the opposition confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in the south-east of Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad.

In the Mashhad neighbourhood, residents fleeing the army advance in other districts were crowded in the streets with nowhere to go, witnesses said.

Many were hungry and had not been able to bring anything with them. East Aleppo has been under siege since mid-July, with food supplies dwindling.

Displaced civilians were sitting on pavement, among them women and children lying on the street to sleep, they said.

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