Gains by the Syrian army and its allies since last week have brought whole districts back under government control and led to a human exodus as thousands have fled their pulverized neighborhoods near the rapidly shifting front lines.

With the rebels now reduced to an area just kilometers across, France has called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council for later on Wednesday to discuss the city's burgeoning humanitarian crisis.

The army and its allies said they had taken the Sheikh Saeed district in the south of the city on Wednesday. Rebels denied this, saying the government's advance had been repelled. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the insurgents retained a third of Sheikh Saeed.

The Observatory reported that the government was detaining and questioning hundreds of those fleeing rebel-held areas for the comparative safety of state-controlled districts.

A Syrian military source denied this, saying there had been no arrests, but adding that displaced people whose identities were not known were being moved into "specific places" in the areas of Aleppo where fleeing civilians were found.

In their attack on Wednesday, government forces stepped up the use of air strikes, including in Aleppo's Old City, according to a rebel official. Rescue workers in eastern Aleppo said 45 people were killed in an artillery bombardment.

After a year of gradual advances for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite militias, the taking of Aleppo would represent a huge stride forwards in his efforts to end the rebellion after nearly six years of conflict.

For the mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups, the fall of Aleppo would deprive them of their last big foothold in a major city.

Russia, Assad's most powerful international ally whose air force has pounded rebels for more than a year, said it hoped the Aleppo situation could be resolved by the end of the year. Rebels in the city have vowed no surrender.

While rebel lines collapsed unexpectedly in parts of eastern Aleppo at the weekend, sources on the government side say the next phase could be more difficult as they try to take more densely populated areas of the city.

Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group, told Reuters that rebel groups in the city had rejected any withdrawal.

"This is the decision of the factions. I spoke to them about everything that was tabled and they said they would not withdraw, and other things may also happen," he said, without giving further details as he spoke from Turkey.

With tens of thousands of people remaining in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, many people say they would rather risk death than surrender to a government they have been trying to overthrow since protests against Assad began in 2011.

Thousands of people who have fled the fighting have gone into the Kurdish-controlled Sheikh Maqsoud district rather than hand themselves over to a government which U.N. investigators have accused of secretly detaining activists and civilians.

Salem Abu Mudar, an east Aleppo resident reached by Reuters, said that although he had never taken up arms against the government, "I fear the regime will not let me go and I will end up in one of its many prisons".

Damascus says such reports of arbitrary detention and torture are fabricated.

The Syrian military source said reports of detentions in Aleppo were intended to scare the people into staying under rebel rule, and that identities of people leaving the area had to be checked to ensure they were not militants.

The army has urged Aleppo's rebel factions to accept a surrender under which they would abandon the city. In previous deals between the government and rebels, insurgents have been given safe passage to the opposition-held province of Idlib.

Rescue workers in the rebel zone said renewed artillery bombardment had killed more than 45 people, mostly women and children, on Wednesday and injured dozens more, including some of those who had fled from frontline areas. The Observatory put the toll from that attack at 21.

"Today there was another massacre, I witnessed it. The displaced people were coming at 6:30 am. There was artillery shelling while they were walking in the streets. Really, it was so, so horrible," said Aref al-Aref, a nurse and photographer in a rebel-held part of the city.

Footage sent by the Civil Defence rescue operation, purportedly of the aftermath, showed people lying in the street in pools of blood, including a woman dressed in black who had been carrying a large backpack. Reuters could not independently verify the date or location of the video.

Rebel shelling of government-held districts in western Aleppo killed eight people, including two children, and wounded seven, the official SANA news agency reported, citing a source in the city's police force.

With diplomatic efforts to resolve the war in deadlock, and uncertainty over the position that the next U.S. administration will take on Syria, Moscow said it had been in contact with President-elect Donald Trump's team on the matter.

The fighting has displaced around 50,000 people in the parts of east Aleppo where fighting has occurred, the Observatory said on Wednesday.

Speaking in Paris, Brita Hagi Hasan, president of the local council in rebel-held Aleppo districts, said the government should set up a safe corridor for civilians to leave.</s>BEIRUT | At least 21 civilians were killed in a wave of artillery fire in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning that struck a neighborhood crowded with people displaced from other parts of the city.

It was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood, in the rebel-held eastern side of the city, was struck in as many days. An airstrike blamed by activists on the government killed 25 civilians Tuesday.

Meanwhile, eight civilians, including two children, were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media. The government blamed rebels for the attack.

This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Civil Defense workers pass by bodies after artillery fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 21 people have been killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those displaced in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP) This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian boy sittiing next to bodies after artillery fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 21 people have been killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those displaced in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP) This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Civil Defense workers carrying a victim on a stretcher after artillery fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 21 people have been killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those displaced in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

Many of the victims in Jub al-Quba died in the streets, with their belongings packed in bags by their sides, photos showed. Jawad al-Rifai, who took the pictures for the Aleppo Media Center, said they were civilians — mostly women and children — fleeing shelling and air strikes on other parts of the city.

The neighborhood and others around it in Aleppo’s centrally-located old city have absorbed thousands of residents displaced by the advance of government troops in the east.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher living in the Zabadieh neighborhood in eastern Aleppo, said refugees were filling up apartment buildings long abandoned because of the war.

“They are every now and then knocking on my door asking for simple things, like spoons, cups, plates, some salt,” as well as medicine, he told reporters using a messaging service.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria through a network of local contacts, said tens more were wounded in Jub al-Quba.

Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo, also known as the White Helmets, put the toll at 45 killed. It blamed the government for the strikes.

Rescue efforts by the group were hampered by the lack of functioning machinery, said Rifai.

“Most of their equipment is out of service because of the targeting against their quarters,” he added.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel, operated by Hezbollah, reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city’s rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday.

Syrian state media announced midday Wednesday that its forces had retaken the southern Sheikh Saeed neighborhood, while the Observatory said rebels still held onto a third of the area. The Observatory added that Iraqi militia fighters were playing a central role in the government’s advance from the south.</s>Syrian residents fleeing the eastern part of Aleppo gather at the Jabal Badro crossing point, which was recently retaken from rebel fighters by the regime forces, on Wednesday (AFP photo)

ALEPPO, Syria — More than 50,000 Syrians have joined a growing exodus of terrified civilians from east Aleppo, a monitor said Wednesday, 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 26 civilians in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Civilians have poured out of the besieged rebel-held east, battered by air strikes and heavy artillery fire by advancing regime forces.

AFP's correspondent in a southeastern district described artillery shells "coming down like rain" on Wednesday.

After one mortar attack, the motionless body of a girl was left crumpled in the street, her arm severed and her head pierced by a sliver of shrapnel. Rescue volunteers carried her body away on a motorcycle.

Regime 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.

They now fully control the city's northeast and pressed their offensive Wednesday on Aleppo's southeastern edges, advancing in the Sheikh Saeed district, according to state news agency SANA.

The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest blow for Syria's opposition since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, before spiralling into a civil war.

More than 50,000 people have fled Aleppo's rebel-held districts, the observatory said Wednesday, including at least 20,000 to government-held territory and another 30,000 to Kurdish-controlled districts.

Many others have travelled south into the remaining territory held by rebels.

Another AFP correspondent near a temporary government-run shelter on the edge of Aleppo on Wednesday saw dozens of displaced residents huddled on the back of pick-up trucks under the pounding rain.

Hundreds also massed in the newly recaptured neighbourhood of Jabal Badro to board government buses heading to west Aleppo.

"The situation of those fleeing is desperate," said Pawel Krzysiek, head of communications for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria.

Syria's Red Crescent is offering assistance in government-held areas, but does not yet have access to east Aleppo.

The UN has for months sought access to the east, but a plan it presented earlier this month to deliver aid has yet to be approved by the government.

The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting later Wednesday on the situation, receiving a briefing from a UN humanitarian official and the UN's peace envoy Staffan de Mistura.

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped the meeting could lead to "an end to the carnage, particularly in Aleppo".

"I would urge all those with responsibility for that, both the Assad regime and their supporters in Russia... to think of what they can do to bring peace, stop the bombardment, stop the killing of innocent civilians and get to the negotiating table," he told AFP after meeting his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia.

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

On Wednesday morning, 26 civilians including seven children were killed in government artillery fire on the Jubb Al Qubbeh district in east Aleppo, the observatory said.

The White Helmets rescue group published photos of the aftermath of the shelling on Jubb Al Qubbeh, showing an apocalyptic scene with bodies, pieces of flesh, and suitcases strewn across the street.

In one image, a young man wept next to two bodies, their top halves obscured by blankets. The feet of one body were clad in pink socks, the other wore red boots done up with white laces.

The observatory says nearly 300 civilians, including 33 children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the latest government assault began on November 15.

Another 48 civilians have been killed in west Aleppo, according to the monitor.

State news agency SANA said eight civilians including two children had been killed in rebel fire on several districts in the city's west on Wednesday.

The violence in the city has prompted international concern, though there has been little sign of a plan to intervene.

UN rights chief HH Prince Zeid on Wednesday said civilians in eastern Aleppo faced "a nightmare which clearly violates the most basic norms of human rights and any shred of human decency”.

"Pounded by accelerating bombardment, deliberately deprived of food and medical care, many of them — including small children — report that they are simply waiting for death," he said.</s>A Syrian government soldier rides a military vehicle near a mosque, after taking control of Aleppo's Al-Haidariya neighbourhood, Syria in this handout picture provided by SANA on November 28, 2016. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rescue workers said more than 45 people had been killed in artillery bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Wednesday, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 50,000 people had been displaced by the fighting.

The Civil Defense said in a message posted on its Telegram account that dozens more people had been wounded in the artillery attack it said had hit people displaced from eastern Aleppo. Most of the dead were women and children, it said.

The Observatory’s toll of 50,000 displaced was more than double a figure of 20,000 given by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday.</s>(CNN) Rebel groups in Syria's war-ravaged Aleppo put up a united front on Thursday in a final effort to prevent regime forces from seizing the whole city.

Rebels in eastern Aleppo have held ground in the Sheikh Saeed neighborhood as they continue to clash with regime troops, in an attempt to protect the southern parts of the enclave south after Syrian forces made sweeping territorial gains in the north.

Syrian troops backed by militia gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad entered eastern Aleppo on Saturday and have seized the entire northeast. They are now in control of more than 20% of eastern Aleppo.

Rebel groups, which have controlled eastern Aleppo for more than four years, on Thursday announced a new alliance, the Aleppo's Army coalition, under the leadership of a rebel named Abu Abdul Rahman Nour.

In a statement, the coalition said it aimed "to save Aleppo and its people." It is seen a sign that they may be willing to negotiate with the regime under one umbrella.

At least 40 people were killed in shelling on Thursday as they were trying to flee rebel-held areas, the Aleppo Media Center said. The death toll has reached more than 600 since Saturday, according to various activist groups.

The regime's ground operation has been backed by intense airstrikes that have caused severe damage to parts of eastern Aleppo. On Thursday's rebels won a short respite from the strikes, as heavy rain prevented warplanes from attacking.

If the regime takes all of Aleppo -- the last urban rebel stronghold in Syria -- it would mark a turning point in the war, putting Assad's government back in control of all four major cities, making a political opposition less likely.

International calls for a political solution to the brutal war that has raged for more than five years are growing louder, but still a stalemate persists.

The 15-member UN Security Council held am emergency meeting in New York on Wednesday, in which the US continued to blame Russia for backing the Syrian regime's "atrocities" in eastern Aleppo, and where Russia and Syria showed no signs of backing down on the bombardments there.

Russia is the most powerful ally of Assad's regime and has carried out airstrikes since September 2015 to prop up the embattled leader. But Moscow has tried to distance itself from the current assault, saying Wednesday it hadn't bombed the city since October 18.

Russia has regularly used its veto power as a permanent member of the council to shoot down resolutions on Syria. China, also a permanent member, has also voted against some of them.

At the heart of the deadlock is that Russia and Syria consider all rebel groups in the country terrorist groups, while some of the very same rebels are considered moderate by the US and have been armed and supported by Washington to fight ISIS.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien made yet another plea for the council to adopt a resolution put forward by Egypt, New Zealand and Spain for a 10-day pause in the fighting and bombing to allow desperately needed aid into the war zone.

"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," O'Brien told council members during the meeting.

Since the ground operation began on Saturday, 25,000 people have fled eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, O'Brien said.

Russia said that the Costello Road into the area had been liberated and was now free to use by aid agencies. But the UN has been looking for a more concrete guarantee that their trucks will be given safe passage.

Twitter users, including government officials, have been using the hashtag #LetAidIn to call for an agreement to stop the bombing and allow aid trucks to enter the zone.

Among them is Gareth Bayley, Britain's special representative for Syria, who said just five of 25 aid convoys were able to make deliveries in November.</s>BEIRUT — A barrage of artillery fire struck a housing area for displaced residents in rebel-held eastern Aleppo Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, activists said, as another eight civilians were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in the war-torn country, said it was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood in eastern Aleppo was struck in as many days. An airstrike killed 25 civilians Tuesday. Thousands of east Aleppo residents have moved to Jub al-Quba and other such neighborhoods fleeing a government advance on the rebel-held east.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo put the toll at 45 killed. Images published by the Civil Defense showed bodies strewn on a debris-filled road in an attack they It blamed on government forces.

Syrian Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

Syrian state media said two children were among the eight killed in shelling on the city's western neighborhoods, which it blamed on the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city's rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday.</s>Syrian families, fleeing from various eastern districts of Aleppo, wait to board vehicles on Tuesday in the government-held eastern neighbourhood of Jabal Badro, before heading to government-controlled western Aleppo, as the Syrian government offensive to recapture rebel-held Aleppo has prompted an exodus of civilians (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels on Wednesday vowed to fight on in east Aleppo in the face of sudden government advances that have cut the city's opposition sector by a third in recent days, and brought insurgents to the brink of a catastrophic defeat.

Gains by the Syrian army and its allies since last week have brought whole districts back under government control and led to a human exodus as thousands have fled their pulverised neighbourhoods near the rapidly shifting front lines.

With the rebels now reduced to an area just kilometres across, France has called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council for later on Wednesday to discuss the city's burgeoning humanitarian crisis.

The army and its allies said they had taken the Sheikh Saeed district in the south of the city on Wednesday. Rebels denied this, saying the government’s advance had been repelled. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the insurgents retained a third of Sheikh Saeed.

The observatory reported that the government was detaining and questioning hundreds of those fleeing rebel-held areas for the comparative safety of state-controlled districts.

A Syrian military source denied this, saying there had been no arrests, but adding that displaced people whose identities were not known were being moved into “specific places” in the areas of Aleppo where fleeing civilians were found.

In their attack on Wednesday, government forces stepped up the use of air strikes, including in Aleppo’s Old City, according to a rebel official. Rescue workers in eastern Aleppo said 45 people were killed in an artillery bombardment.

After a year of gradual advances for Syrian President Bashar Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shiite militias, the taking of Aleppo would represent a huge stride forwards in his efforts to end the rebellion after nearly six years of conflict.

For the mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups, the fall of Aleppo would deprive them of their last big foothold in a major city.

Russia, Assad’s most powerful international ally whose air force has pounded rebels for more than a year, said it hoped the Aleppo situation could be resolved by the end of the year. Rebels in the city have vowed no surrender.

While rebel lines collapsed unexpectedly in parts of eastern Aleppo at the weekend, sources on the government side say the next phase could be more difficult as they try to take more densely populated areas of the city.

Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group, told Reuters that rebel groups in the city had rejected any withdrawal.

“This is the decision of the factions. I spoke to them about everything that was tabled and they said they would not withdraw, and other things may also happen,” he said, without giving further details as he spoke from Turkey.

With tens of thousands of people remaining in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, many people say they would rather risk death than surrender to a government they have been trying to overthrow since protests against Assad began in 2011.

Thousands of people who have fled the fighting have gone into the Kurdish-controlled Sheikh Maqsoud district rather than hand themselves over to a government which UN investigators have accused of secretly detaining activists and civilians.

Salem Abu Mudar, an east Aleppo resident reached by Reuters, said that although he had never taken up arms against the government, “I fear the regime will not let me go and I will end up in one of its many prisons”.

Damascus says such reports of arbitrary detention and torture are fabricated.

The Syrian military source said reports of detentions in Aleppo were intended to scare the people into staying under rebel rule, and that identities of people leaving the area had to be checked to ensure they were not militants.

The army has urged Aleppo’s rebel factions to accept a surrender under which they would abandon the city. In previous deals between the government and rebels, insurgents have been given safe passage to the opposition-held province of Idlib.

Rescue workers in the rebel zone said renewed artillery bombardment had killed more than 45 people, mostly women and children, on Wednesday and injured dozens more, including some of those who had fled from frontline areas. The observatory put the toll from that attack at 21.

“Today there was another massacre, I witnessed it. The displaced people were coming at 6:30am. There was artillery shelling while they were walking in the streets. Really, it was so, so horrible,” said Aref Al Aref, a nurse and photographer in a rebel-held part of the city.

Footage sent by the Civil Defence rescue operation, purportedly of the aftermath, showed people lying in the street in pools of blood, including a woman dressed in black who had been carrying a large backpack. Reuters could not independently verify the date or location of the video.

Rebel shelling of government-held districts in western Aleppo killed eight people, including two children, and wounded seven, the official SANA news agency reported, citing a source in the city’s police force.

With diplomatic efforts to resolve the war in deadlock, and uncertainty over the position that the next US administration will take on Syria, Moscow said it had been in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team on the matter.

The fighting has displaced around 50,000 people in the parts of east Aleppo where fighting has occurred, the observatory said on Wednesday.

Speaking in Paris, Brita Hagi Hasan, president of the local council in rebel-held Aleppo districts, said the government should set up a safe corridor for civilians to leave.</s>Syria's government says it has recaptured another entire district of Aleppo from rebels, but opposition fighters have denied the claim and vowed to continue their fight against a brutal Russia-backed government offensive.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on November 30 that they had taken full control of the Sheikh Saeed district on the southern edge of rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo.

But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted rebel fighters who said they still controlled a third of the Sheikh Saeed neighborhood.

During the past week, rebel fighters have lost a third of the areas in eastern Aleppo that they had controlled since 2012, cutting their urban stronghold in half and bringing them to the brink of a catastrophic defeat.

The gains by the Syrian Army and its allies have led to a massive human exodus with some 50,000 civilians fleeing decimated neighborhoods near the rapidly shifting front lines.

Syrian military officials are denying a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that government forces were detaining and questioning hundreds of civilians fleeing rebel-held areas for the comparative safety of state-controlled districts.

The observatory also said Syrian and Russian air strikes were intensifying on November 30 in the city center, with at least 45 civilians killed.

'Slow-Motion Descent Into Hell'

The UN Security Council is set to hold another emergency session on the crisis in Aleppo on November 30.

Aleppo's eastern districts have been under government siege for more than four months, with international aid stocks exhausted and food supplies running low.

World Food Program spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said civilians were enduring a "slow-motion descent into hell."

And France's UN ambassador, Francois Delattre, called for international action, but it was unclear what that would entail and whether it would succeed where so many previous efforts have failed.

"France and its partners cannot remain silent in the face of what could be one of the biggest massacres of civilian population since World War II," Delattre said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Moscow was hoping that the situation in Aleppo can be resolved by the end of the year.

"We need to force these terrorists out" in the same way as Islamic State fighters need to be forced out in their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Bogdanov as saying on November 30.

Bogdanov was also quoted by TASS as saying Moscow had been in contact with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's team over Syria.

Trump is to take office in January.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, TASS, and dpa</s>(CNN) Rebel groups in Syria's war-ravaged Aleppo put up a united front on Thursday in a final effort to prevent regime forces from seizing the whole city.

Rebels in eastern Aleppo have held ground in the Sheikh Saeed neighborhood as they continue to clash with regime troops, in an attempt to protect the southern parts of the enclave south after Syrian forces made sweeping territorial gains in the north.

Syrian troops backed by militia gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad entered eastern Aleppo on Saturday and have seized the entire northeast. They are now in control of more than 20% of eastern Aleppo.

Rebel groups, which have controlled eastern Aleppo for more than four years, on Thursday announced a new alliance, the Aleppo's Army coalition, under the leadership of a rebel named Abu Abdul Rahman Nour.

In a statement, the coalition said it aimed "to save Aleppo and its people." It is seen a sign that they may be willing to negotiate with the regime under one umbrella.

At least 40 people were killed in shelling on Thursday as they were trying to flee rebel-held areas, the Aleppo Media Center said. The death toll has reached more than 600 since Saturday, according to various activist groups.

The regime's ground operation has been backed by intense airstrikes that have caused severe damage to parts of eastern Aleppo. On Thursday's rebels won a short respite from the strikes, as heavy rain prevented warplanes from attacking.

If the regime takes all of Aleppo -- the last urban rebel stronghold in Syria -- it would mark a turning point in the war, putting Assad's government back in control of all four major cities, making a political opposition less likely.

International calls for a political solution to the brutal war that has raged for more than five years are growing louder, but still a stalemate persists.

The 15-member UN Security Council held am emergency meeting in New York on Wednesday, in which the US continued to blame Russia for backing the Syrian regime's "atrocities" in eastern Aleppo, and where Russia and Syria showed no signs of backing down on the bombardments there.

Russia is the most powerful ally of Assad's regime and has carried out airstrikes since September 2015 to prop up the embattled leader. But Moscow has tried to distance itself from the current assault, saying Wednesday it hadn't bombed the city since October 18.

Russia has regularly used its veto power as a permanent member of the council to shoot down resolutions on Syria. China, also a permanent member, has also voted against some of them.

At the heart of the deadlock is that Russia and Syria consider all rebel groups in the country terrorist groups, while some of the very same rebels are considered moderate by the US and have been armed and supported by Washington to fight ISIS.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien made yet another plea for the council to adopt a resolution put forward by Egypt, New Zealand and Spain for a 10-day pause in the fighting and bombing to allow desperately needed aid into the war zone.

"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," O'Brien told council members during the meeting.

Since the ground operation began on Saturday, 25,000 people have fled eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, O'Brien said.

Russia said that the Costello Road into the area had been liberated and was now free to use by aid agencies. But the UN has been looking for a more concrete guarantee that their trucks will be given safe passage.

Twitter users, including government officials, have been using the hashtag #LetAidIn to call for an agreement to stop the bombing and allow aid trucks to enter the zone.

Among them is Gareth Bayley, Britain's special representative for Syria, who said just five of 25 aid convoys were able to make deliveries in November.</s>BEIRUT — A barrage of artillery fire struck a housing area for displaced residents in rebel-held eastern Aleppo today, killing at least 21 civilians, activists said, as another eight civilians were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in the war-torn country, said it was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood in eastern Aleppo was struck in as many days. An airstrike killed 25 civilians Tuesday. Thousands of east Aleppo residents have moved to Jub al-Quba and other such neighborhoods fleeing a government advance on the rebel-held east.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo put the toll at 45 killed. Images published by the Civil Defense showed bodies strewn on a debris-filled road in an attack they It blamed on government forces.

Syrian Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

Syrian state media said two children were among the eight killed in shelling on the city's western neighborhoods, which it blamed on the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city's rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday.
Syrian Civil Defense claim that more than 45 people have died as a result of heavy artillery bombardment of eastern Aleppo.