Third of rebel-held Syria city taken by forces in Aleppo

In eastern Aleppo Syrian government forces have captured more than a third of rebel-held territory.

The advance, after heavy bombing from the air,
is a major blow for the armed opponents of
President Bashar al-Assad.
State TV said government troops were
dismantling mines and explosives and
continuing their advance.
Thousands of civilians have fled the besieged
districts after a weekend of heavy fighting.
Hundreds of families have been displaced
within the area.
What are the latest developments?
Rebel fighters have been driven out of more
neighbourhoods of their long-held enclave in
eastern Aleppo, as Syrian government forces
continue to advance.
After further fighting on Monday, the rebels are
reported to have lost all of the northern
neighbourhoods they controlled before the
weekend, leaving them with under two-thirds of
the territory they had in the city.
Two rebel officials told Reuters their forces had
withdrawn to a more defendable front line after
government advances risked splitting the
rebel-held area in two.
Syrian government troops now control the
section of east Aleppo north of the Sakhour
highway, according to monitors.
Russia's defence ministry says Syrian
government troops have captured 12 districts,
or 40% of the territory, from the rebels.
What's happening in Aleppo?
Profile: Aleppo, Syria's second city
Aerial bombardment of rebel-held areas was
continuing on Monday, according to the UK-
based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian army and its allies launched a
major offensive to retake control of Aleppo in
September.
What has happened to residents?
Thousands of residents of east Aleppo have
fled to areas controlled by government forces
and Kurdish groups since the fighting
intensified on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
as many as 10,000 residents fled to
government-controlled western areas and a
Kurdish-run northern district.
State media showed men, women and children
being transported to government-held areas on
green buses.
Kurdish groups who control the Sheikh
Maqsoud area of Aleppo provided images
showing people fleeing the rebel-held
neighbourhoods into a Kurdish-controlled
district.
A spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish PYD party
told Reuters that 6,000-10,000 people had fled
into the district.
Why are people still living in east Aleppo?
Life under siege
Scott Craig, the spokesperson for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in
Syria, told the BBC that there were 250,000
people in need of assistance in eastern Aleppo,
100,000 of them children. Food supplies were
gone, he said.
"The situation on the ground in eastern Aleppo
is almost beyond the imagination of those of us
who are not there," Mr Craig said.
Seven-year-old Bana Alabed, who has
gathered thousands of Twitter followers with
her tweets from Aleppo, said on Sunday that
her home in the east of the city had been
bombed .
On Monday morning, her account tweeted :
"Under heavy bombardments now. In between
death and life now, please keep praying for us."
Last week the United Nations' humanitarian
chief, Stephen O'Brien, said that hundreds of
civilians had been killed or injured since the
bombardment of eastern Aleppo resumed six
days earlier.
He also highlighted deaths and injuries
resulting from mortar and rocket attacks from
rebel-held areas into western Aleppo.
Why has this happened now - and why does it
matter?
This advance follows two weeks of relentless
aerial bombardment, as the government and its
allies renewed their assault on the rebel-held
portion of Aleppo.
It followed a three-week pause in the Russian
and Syrian bombing of the area, which ended
on 15 November.
There are no fully-functioning hospitals left in
the rebel-held territory and food ran out earlier
in November.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura estimated last
month that there were 8,000 rebel fighters in
eastern Aleppo.
Retaking the whole of Aleppo, Syria's second
largest city, is a key aim of the Syrian
government. The east of Aleppo has been held
by rebel factions opposed to President Bashar
al-Assad for the past four years.
The loss of eastern Aleppo would be a
devastating blow for the rebels.
Government forces have taken more and more
territory from them since Russia intervened to
back its ally, President Assad, in September
2015.
Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes
have helped Syrian government forces to break
the deadlock.
Russia says its air force is active in other parts
of the country, but has not operated over
Aleppo since the pause.
Why is Russia engaged in Aleppo?
Analysis - by Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic
correspondent
The tide is clearly turning in Aleppo in favour of
the Assad regime - raising serious questions
about the ability of the disparate rebel
groupings to maintain a significant area of
control in northern Syria.
The recapture of the city would be an important
symbolic achievement for President Assad -
underlining the fact that despite all the calls for
his departure, Russian and Iranian support has
been able not just to maintain him in power,
but has enabled the regime to go onto the
offensive.
Indeed, external military support has been
crucial. After years of gruelling attritional
combat the regular Syrian army, despite new
arms supplies from Moscow, is a shadow of its
former self.
The battle for Aleppo has depended upon air
power and a variety of pro-Iranian militias,
including Hezbollah fighters on the ground.
This has cemented Iran's key role in the
conflict, which may have consequences in the
future.