Syria: Army advances in east Aleppo
Residents walk through rubble in worn-torn Aleppo (Reuters)
Syria’s army advanced in east Aleppo Saturday in a devastating assault that has placed it in control of more than half the former rebel stronghold and sparked a civilian exodus.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled eastern neighborhoods of the battered city since President Bashar al-Assad’s regime began its latest offensive in mid-November.
Overnight, government troops and allied forces seized the district of Tariq al-Bab where heavy fighting had raged a day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Saturday, regime forces also secured a zone around the road from regime-held west Aleppo to the international airport just east of the city, taking two whole districts while fighting continued in a third.