Assad forces seize 5 districts in Aleppo, reject cease-fire

Syrian government troops seized five new districts of eastern Aleppo on Tuesday, including the strategic Shaar neighborhood, a monitoring group said. 
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the fresh advance puts the government in control of more than 70 percent of the former opposition oppositionstronghold in Aleppo’s east
“Regime forces took full control of Shaar, Dahret Awad, Juret Awad, Karam Al-Beik and Karam Al-Jabal,” the Britain-based monitor said on Tuesday.
“The regime is cornering the rebels even further,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Backed by allied militia, Syrian troops have waged a fierce three-week assault on eastern Aleppo, a opposition bastion since 2012.
Their rapid advance has left opposition reeling in their shrinking enclave in southeast Aleppo.
Abdel Rahman told AFP the government could now wage a “war of attrition” on encircled opposition groups. Syrian state news agency SANA confirmed that Syrian troops overran Shaar and several other districts on Tuesday.
The fall of eastern Aleppo would deal the biggest blow yet to opposition forces since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011.
The regime’s campaign has been met with global outrage, but Damascus and its steadfast ally Moscow have said any cease-fire must include a guarantee that all opposition fighters leave the city.

Syria rejects cease-fire
Syria rejects any cease-fire negotiated by any party in opposition-held eastern Aleppo unless what it describes as terrorist groups there depart, its Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday in a statement carried by state media.
Moscow said on Monday that Russian and US officials would meet this week to discuss a possible opposition withdrawal from Aleppo. A US official told Reuters that Washington would embrace that as a step to save lives.
The Syrian government describes all the opposition groups fighting to bring down President Bashar Assad as terrorists. The insurgents include groups backed by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies, as well as militants.
Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Monday for a week-long cease-fire, with Moscow arguing that fighters used such pauses in the fighting to reinforce, causing more fighting and harm to civilians.
Russia, Assad’s most powerful foreign supporter, has conducted a campaign of air strikes against the opposition since September 2015, including in Aleppo.
It says it is targeting the Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham group, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate previously known as the Nusra Front, in the city. Opposition based in Aleppo say that Fateh Al-Sham is not present there in significant numbers.

Source: Arab News