{"id":273871,"date":"2016-12-03T14:34:53","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T14:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=273871"},"modified":"2016-12-03T14:34:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T14:34:53","slug":"aleppo-siege-syria-rebels-lose-60-of-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=273871","title":{"rendered":"Aleppo siege: Syria rebels lose 60% of territory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Close to two-thirds of rebel-held areas of east Aleppo have now fallen to the Syrian government after another district was seized.<\/p>\n<p>A UK-based monitor said the Tariq al-Bab district fell on Friday, opening up a link between government-held areas and Aleppo&#8217;s airport.<\/p>\n<p>Swathes of east Aleppo held by rebels have been seized by government troops and militiamen in the past three weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Some 250,000 people remain trapped in besieged areas of the city.<\/p>\n<p>Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. The United Nations this week said conditions in east Aleppo were now so dire that medical operations were being conducted without anaesthetics.<\/p>\n<p>The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Tariq al-Bab was recaptured more than four years after falling into rebel hands.<\/p>\n<p>Clashes in the district left tens of fighters on both sides killed or injured, it said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/151C7\/production\/_92817468_aleppo_corridors_624_011216_16_9.png\" alt=\"Map\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>At least 300 people have been killed since the government-led offensive on east Aleppo,<\/p>\n<p>The BBC&#8217;s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is in west Aleppo, said the seizure of Tariq al-Bab meant that 60% of the areas formerly held by rebels was now in government hands.<\/p>\n<p>Heavy shelling of the east continued throughout the night, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people fled Tariq al-Bab into neighbouring areas as fighting intensified.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Girl, 7, tweets photo of lost Aleppo home<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Why is Russia engaged in Aleppo?<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">&#8216;Clown of Aleppo&#8217; killed in air strike<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Earlier this week, Stephen O&#8217;Brien, the UN&#8217;s humanitarian affairs chief, said besieged areas of the city risked becoming &#8220;one giant graveyard&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said some people inside opposition-controlled areas were so hungry they were reduced to scavenging.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Russia, that supports President Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s government, indicated it was ready to discuss opening four safe corridors for humanitarian access.<\/p>\n<p>Aleppo was once Syria&#8217;s largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>It has been divided in roughly two for the past four years. But in the past 11 months, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes.<\/p>\n<p>In early September they reinstated a siege of the east, and launched a large-scale offensive later that month to retake full control of the city.<\/p>\n<p>The Syrian Observatory says more than 300 civilians have been killed in rebel-held districts since the offensive was stepped up in mid-November.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/178D7\/production\/_92817469_aleppo_map_before_after_976.png\" alt=\"Map\" width=\"573\" height=\"322\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Close to two-thirds of rebel-held areas of east Aleppo have now fallen to the Syrian government after another district was seized. A UK-based monitor said the Tariq al-Bab district fell on Friday, opening up a link between government-held areas and Aleppo&#8217;s airport. Swathes of east Aleppo held by rebels have been seized by government troops [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":273872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[12023,3,5692],"class_list":["post-273871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-aleppo","tag-ghana-news","tag-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}