Syrian army and allies regain control over crucial Aleppo district

Syrian government forces and their allies captured new ground on the edge of the contested northern city of Aleppo on Thursday, tightening the siege on rebel-held parts of the city, state media and an activist group said.

The latest push came after pro-government troops recaptured several military academies over the weekend that they had lost in attacks by insurgents a month ago.

The government advance also endangers talks between Russia and the United States over a possible Aleppo cease-fire. The city, Syria's largest and once its commercial hub, has been the focus of fighting in recent months.

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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces backed by allied groups, including the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, captured the Ramouseh neighbourhood on the southern edge of Aleppo.

Syrian state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as confirming that pro-government troops had captured large parts of Ramouseh as well as a nearby hill.

Fighting continued to rage on the southern edge of Ramouseh, according to rebel fighters, and residents of the adjacent opposition-held neighbourhood of al-Sukkari reported heavy shelling.

Footage of airstrike aftermath

Amateur videos published online on Wednesday appeared to show the aftermath of an airstrike inal-Sukkari.

People were seen running through the streets shortly after the purported air strike, which was said to have reduced buildings to rubble. Many were seen carrying the injured to awaiting cars and transporting those who could not walk on stretchers.

Chaos and destruction follow airstrike in Syria

8 years ago

Duration 0:39

Social media video shows aftermath of bombing in Aleppo

One man was carried out of a building that had collapsed, while a man was seen running with an injured child in his arms. In the videos, a baby with cuts and burns is seen crying as a woman looks over him in hospital. Other children are shown to have their injuries tended to as they laid on hospital beds.

A suspected chlorine gas attack hit the same rebel-held neighbourhood on Tuesday,causing dozens to suffocate. The Syrian Civil Defence said government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the neighbourhood. A Syrian military source denied the accusations on Wednesday.

The Observatory reported that 40 days of fighting in Aleppo has killed nearly 700 civilians, including 160children.

Struggling ceasefire talks

In a sign of the deepening conflict in Aleppo, Capt. Abdel-Razzak Abdel-Salam, a spokesman for the rebel group Nour el-Din el-Zinki, said rebel fighters resumed shelling the Castello road, the government-captured highway that was considered in international talks as a potential corridor for humanitarian aid.

The rebels had been arguing that Ramouseh, when they controlled it, could be an alternative route for humanitarian aid. But now it is under government control.

Talks between Moscow and Washington have been bogged down over ways to create a lasting a ceasefire in Aleppo, among other issues.

Abdel-Salam said that even while the Syrian government and its ally Russia were negotiating with the U.S. on a cease-fire in Aleppo they were plotting a "new betrayal" of besieged neighbourhoods, violating the spirit of the talks aimed at allowing humanitarian aid into opposition districts.

He said that "events have overtaken" ceasefire talks. "All options are open," including fighting the government on new fronts, he added.

ISIS attack

At least five people were killed and 12 injured in ISIS attack in the Syrian border town ofJarabluson Thursday,Turkish security and hospital sources toldReuters.

ISISwill remain a presence inside Syria and Iraq for "quite a while to come" despite the battlefield defeats the militant group has suffered, CIA director John Brennan said on Thursday.

"I do think a number of them are going to remain a challenge for the United States as well for other governments for a number of years to come," Brennan said at a conference.

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