Beirut: Syrian government forces swept through the Old City of Aleppo on Wednesday morning as rebel forces — besieged and facing certain defeat — debated withdrawal from their shattered stronghold.
The army and allied militiamen now hold three-quarters of east Aleppo, four years after they wrested the area from government control.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said forces supporting the government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad took over the Old City in the night, after rebels withdrew deeper into their shrinking enclave.
The winding streets of Aleppo’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage Site famed for its medieval buildings and souq, had been divided between regime and rebel control since 2012.
As the United States and Russia prepare talks on the prospect of a full rebel withdrawal from Aleppo, the militants themselves are at loggerheads over what to do next.
Sources within the armed opposition, speaking on condition of anonymity, said most groups had agreed in theory to a withdrawal plan, but that a small number of powerful, hardline groups were resisting that call.
More than 730 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo since the start of a November 15 government offensive and 80,000 have fled, the Syrian Observatory added on Wednesday.
Repeated government warnings — sent via text message or printed on airdropped leaflets — have urged residents to leave, warning those who stayed would be “annihilated”.
The regime has accused rebels of holding residents hostage for use as “human shields”.
As civilians moved into new areas, Syrian soldiers were helping residents to evacuate.
Inside one bus, evacuees could be seen huddling together, a baby wrapped in heavy blankets fast asleep at his mother’s feet as she sat waiting for the vehicle to leave.
“The situation was very difficult,” said Umm Abdu, 30, as she left the Bab Al Hadid neighbourhood with her husband, five children, mother and siblings.
“We lived on edge for the last four days,” she said. “The gunmen were using us to protect themselves ... but then the army came and we were able to leave.”
On Wednesday morning, Aleppo’s rebel groups called on the United Nations to oversee a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians and 500 urgent medical cases.
The recapture of Aleppo would mark Al Assad’s greatest victory in Syria’s five-and-a-half-year civil war. Even while morale in the east has been shredded by intense air strikes and a crippling government siege, many civilians still say they fear for the future that awaits them with a government victory.
Inside what remains of the rebel enclave, there is a growing humanitarian crisis. Amid the blistering bombardment, thousands of residents displaced by the offensive now shelter inside abandoned apartment blocks.
Food has almost run out and fuel stocks are so low that rescue workers say they are unable to reach many of the grievously wounded.
“People have flocked there and the system can’t cope. There are no resources, all day there is bombing,” said Colonel Abo Bakr, a representative of the Free Syrian Army-aligned Jaish Al Mujahideen.
Photographs from the area on Wednesday morning showed several bodies piled outside a hospital. Grave-diggers have said they no longer have space to bury the dead.
