ALEPPO: Hundreds of elite Syrian troops moved into east Aleppo on Thursday ahead of a push into the most densely populated areas, after the UN warned the city risked becoming a “giant graveyard”.
Despite fierce global criticism, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have pressed an assault to retake control of all of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub but now a divided city in ruins.
The assault — backed by heavy artillery fire — has spurred a mass exodus of tens of thousands of residents from rebel-held districts.
The relentless barrage has left Aleppo’s streets strewn with the bodies of men, women and children, many lying next to the suitcases they had packed to escape.
The steady artillery fire could again be heard pounding rebel areas early Thursday, with heavy rainfall adding to the misery.
The assault has seen Assad’s forces make significant gains in the last week.
After overrunning the city’s northeast, they were in control of 40 percent of the territory once held by opposition forces in Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The regime is tightening the noose on the remaining section of east Aleppo under rebel control,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
He said hundreds of fighters from the elite Republican Guard and Fourth Division arrived in Aleppo on Thursday “in preparation for street battles” in the densely populated southeast.
“They are moving in on the ground, but they are afraid of ambushes because of the density of both residents and fighters,” he said.
The violence in Aleppo has sparked widespread outrage, but little concrete action from the international community.
Speaking to a special Security Council session on Wednesday, UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien made an urgent appeal.
“For the sake of humanity we call on — we plead — with the parties and those with influence to do everything in their power to protect civilians and enable access to the besieged part of eastern Aleppo before it becomes one giant graveyard,” he said.
