Syrian government
and allied forces seized large parts of an important district in rebel-held
eastern Aleppo on Saturday but fierce fighting for control of the residential
area
continued, rebels, pro-government media and a monitor said.
Government forces
have advanced with a ground and air assault on the edge of the besieged eastern
half of the city, a move the rebels say is designed to split their most
important urban stronghold in two.
Aleppo, which was
Syria's biggest city before the start of a civil war that has killed hundreds
of thousands of people, is divided between the government-held west and
rebel-held east, where U.N. officials say at least 250,000 people are under
siege.
Capturing all of
Aleppo would be a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after six
and a half years of fighting.
A Syrian military
source and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor
said Syrian government and allied forces had taken control of about 80 percent
of the Hanano housing district, which is on the northeast frontline of the
eastern sector.
A renewed air
assault on residential and frontline parts of east Aleppo began last Tuesday
after a weeks-long pause in air strikes and shelling there.
Yasser al-Yousef,
from the political office of the Nour al-Din al-Zinki rebel group, said
insurgents had been fighting fiercely for the past 48 hours to defend Hanano
and the southern front of east Aleppo from heavy government bombardment.
"The regime
managed to advance into a number of positions in the Hanano housing area but
revolutionary fighters are trying to take them back," Yousef said.
The Syrian military
source said the army hoped to fully secure the area "within hours."
A Syrian state
television reporter broadcast live from a part of Hanano on Saturday and said
the Syrian army's operation to secure the area was ongoing. Gunshots could be
heard and behind him damaged buildings and rising smoke could be seen.
An official from Jabha
Shamiya, one of the biggest groups fighting against Assad in northern Syria
which has some fighters in Hanano, said there are back-and-forth battles and
about half of Hanano has been taken by the government.
Rebels say much of
Hanano has been empty of residents for some months.
Syrian state media
said the army had secured the safe passage of at least 150 people out of
Hanano, and showed pictures of people it said were evacuated residents in a
reception center.
In the 12 days since
the renewed bombardment on east Aleppo, at least 201 civilians, including 27
children have died in the besieged sector, the Observatory said. There were 134
rebel fighter deaths.
The monitor also
documented 19 civilian deaths, including 11 children, and dozens of injuries as
a result of rebel shelling of government-held west Aleppo. Rebel shelling into
the Sheikh Maqsoud district, which is under the control of the Kurdish YPG
militia, has killed three people, it said.
Syrian state news
agency SANA said three people died and 15 were injured on Saturday when rebels
fired rockets into government-held west Aleppo.
Reuters
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