Exodus in Aleppo as Syria army advances

MORE than 50,000 Syrians have joined a growing exodus of terrified civilians from east Aleppo, a monitor said yesterday, as the UN Security Council was set for emergency talks on fighting in the city.

As government forces pressed an assault in the divided city, regime artillery fire killed at least 21 civilians in east Aleppo yesterday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Civilians have poured out of the rebel-held east in recent days, with parents carrying children and the young pushing the old in wheelchairs or makeshift carts as they flee.

Some have arrived in government-held or Kurdish-controlled territory with overstuffed suitcases and bags of their possessions, but others have come empty-handed, with only the clothes on their backs.

In the newly recaptured neighbourhood of Jabal Badro, hundreds of people massed to board government buses taking people to west Aleppo.

Government forces and allied fighters have seized a third of the rebel-held east of Aleppo since they began an operation to recapture all of the battered second city just over a fortnight ago.

The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest blow for Syria’s opposition since the conflict began.

Syria’s opposition National Coalition said it was working with France on a draft UN resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, though Russia was likely to veto such a proposal.