Syria’s military and Russian warplanes bombarded rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Saturday as Damascus’s allies said victory was near, but insurgents fought back and army advances halted after rapid gains during the week.

The United States said it was meeting a Russian team in Geneva to find a way to save lives, but an agreement looked elusive as the two countries, which back opposing sides, have repeatedly failed to strike a deal to allow evacuations and help aid deliveries.

Russia, whose military intervention helped turn the war in President Bashar al-Assad’s favour, said the Syrian government now controls 93 per cent of Aleppo, a figure Reuters could not independently verify. Recapture of the country’s second-largest city would deal a major blow to rebels who have fought to unseat Assad in the nearly six-year war.

The insurgents are holed out in a handful of areas mostly south of the historic Old City, having lost nearly three-quarters of territory they controlled for years in the space of around two weeks.

Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, a key military ally of Damascus alongside Russia and Iran, said late on Friday that a “promised victory” in Aleppo was imminent and would change the course of the war.

The advances mean the government appears closer to victory than at any point since 2011 protests against Assad evolved into armed rebellion. The war has killed more than 300,000 people and made more than 11 million homeless.

A win for Assad in Aleppo looks close, but the fighting still raged on Saturday.

In a surprise setback elsewhere, government forces lost control of most of the ancient city of Palmyra in eastern Syria to Islamic State, a war monitor and rebels said.

The army earlier said it had sent reinforcements to Palmyra, more than 200 kms (130 miles) away, to stave off a fierce attack by the militants.

A rebel commander in the Aleppo-based Jaish al-Mujahideen group said the IS offensive had forced the government to divert troops to Palmyra from Aleppo – a possible explanation for the slowed advance there and heavy aerial and artillery bombardment.

Russian warplanes and Syrian artillery bombarded rebel-held districts, and rebels responded with shelling of government-controlled areas as gunfire rang out, a Reuters correspondent in Aleppo said.

Russia and Syria said on Friday they had reduced military operations to allow civilians to leave.

But rebels said their counterattacks are what have halted government advances.

“There’s no advance by the regime. They (rebels) have stopped them several times,” Zakaria Malahifji, a Turkey-based official in the Fastaqim rebel group said.

Fighting has killed hundreds of people in recent weeks, monitors say, and devastated large areas of east Aleppo.

Parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Old City recaptured by the government were completely destroyed by fighting, a Reuters correspondent said. Old markets and bathhouses had been flattened.

“I found my home destroyed,” said one returning resident, who gave only his family name, Sheikho.

“I didn’t even recognize where it was because of the destruction,” he said.

Mohammed Shaaban, standing outside a destroyed church, was also astounded by the destruction.

“A year and a half ago when I last visited there was not this level of damage. I’m shocked and saddened. They destroyed civilization and humanity,” he said, referring to rebels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said several people were killed in rebel shelling on Saturday.

Thousands of people have left rebel districts. Some have fled to government-held areas but others went to areas under rebel control fearing arrest and reprisals by government forces.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia to show “a little grace” when American and Russian officials meet in Geneva later on Saturday to try to reach a deal enabling civilians and fighters to leave Aleppo.

“Fighters ... don’t trust that if they agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo that it will save Aleppo and they will be unharmed,” Kerry told reporters in Paris after a meeting of countries opposed to Assad.

“The choice for many of them ... is to die in Aleppo, die in (neighbouring) Idlib, but die,” he added.

Germany said Syrian opposition backers were seeking a political solution, but there was no agreement in Paris on a truce.

Russia’s defence ministry said more than 20,000 civilians left eastern Aleppo on Saturday and over 1,200 rebels laid down their arms. The British-based Observatory said hundreds of civilians had left but no fighters surrendered.

Rebel officials have sworn they will never leave.

The army said that it reduced operations to allow residents to leave and that this would enable the military to carry out “wider manoeuvres” against insurgents in due course.

Even once Aleppo is retaken, the multi-sided Syrian war will continue.

The United States, which is leading a separate fight against Islamic State in northern and eastern Syria, said it will send 200 additional military personnel including special forces to create pressure on the group’s Raqqa hub.

The fight against Islamic State, waged separately by the group’s many enemies – Moscow and Damascus, the U.S. coalition, and some of the same Turkish-backed rebels fighting Assad in Aleppo – is just one sign that Syria’s complex conflict will not end with a defeat for insurgents in Aleppo.

Kerry warned the war would create more jihadist militants and grind on.

“If Aleppo were to fall ... the war does not end, but in fact could create more jihadis and more people to seek revenge and prosecute their interests,” he said.</s>Russia and the United States will continue talks on Aleppo and evacuation of civilians after the US secretary of state and his Russian counterpart discussed the situation in the war-torn Syrian city.

Aleppo has been divided between government-controlled neighbourhoods in the city's west and rebel-held areas in the east since 2012.

The Syrian government and its allied forces now control at least three-quarters of the east because of a massive military assault on the besieged area.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian media quoted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying the Syrian army had halted its attacks on Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians, but there was no confirmation from the UN or the Syrian government.

John Kerry and Lavrov held brief meetings on Wednesday and Thursday on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in Hamburg.

"They [John Kerry and Lavrov] agreed to continue discussions about establishing a framework for a ceasefire that will allow the delivery of aid, desperately needed humanitarian aid, as well as the safe departure of those who wish to leave the city," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a briefing.

On Wednesday, government forces scored an important victory when the rebels retreated from the Old City, the historic heart of Aleppo.

They extended their advances later in the day, seizing the Bab al-Nayrab, Al-Maadi and Salhin neighbourhoods, according to Syrian state media.

"It's true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let's be realistic - it won't mean the end of the war in Syria," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the al-Watan newspaper. "But it will be a huge step towards this end."

READ MORE: What went wrong in east Aleppo?

While rebels have vowed to continue fighting, the battle is complicated by tens of thousands of fearful civilians trapped in the remaining portions of the rebel-held east.

And as winter sets in, siege conditions are increasingly desperate, exacerbated by increasing numbers of displaced residents and food and water shortages.

Brita Haji Hassan, president of the Aleppo local council, said on Thursday more than 800 people have been killed and 3,000-3,500 wounded in war-devastated eastern Aleppo in the past 26 days.

"Today 150,000 people are threatened with extermination. We are calling for a halt to the bombing and guarantees of safe passage of all," Hassan said during a trip to Geneva.

Nearly 150 civilians, most disabled or in need of medical care, were evacuated overnight from a hospital in Aleppo's Old City, the first major evacuation from the eastern sector, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

Among those evacuated from Dar al-Safaa hospital in the Old City - taken over by Syrian government forces on Tuesday - 118 patients were taken to three hospitals in the west of Aleppo and 30 people were taken to shelters, also in the west of the city, the ICRC said in a statement.

OPINION: Why Syria's Bashar al-Assad is still in power

The evacuation was conducted jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, it added.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek said: "The people were basically trapped there [in recent days]."

"The fighting kind of slowed down starting from yesterday afternoon," he continued, adding "it was too dangerous" to carry out an evacuation earlier.

"It's first and utmost about the safety of those people [being evacuated] and our priority is to ensure that they will be helped ... and safely transported to a safer place."

Since it began in March 2011, the war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people, made more than half of Syrians homeless, and created the world's worst refugee crisis.

Assad has ruled out the possibility of a negotiated ceasefire with rebel forces.</s>U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of a Mediterranean Dialogues Summit in Rome, on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016.

PARIS — Russia said late Thursday that the Syrian military has suspended its combat operations in eastern Aleppo to allow civilians to leave the city and that it had reached agreement with the United States to negotiate the safe departure of rebel fighters.

A senior U.S. State Department official here traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry said that neither of those assertions could yet be confirmed but that Kerry was in contact with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There were conflicting reports from inside Aleppo, where some residents reported a sudden quiet, but others said neighborhoods were still under fire. On Wednesday, as many as 150 elderly residents of Aleppo's Old City were evacuated by the government in a joint operation with the International Red Cross.

Lavrov, speaking to Russian journalists in Hamburg, said a much bigger evacuation was underway. "Yet another and the biggest [operation] so far . . . to evacuate the civilians willing to leave the place is underway there," he said, according to Russia's state-owned Tass news agency. "There are some 8,000 people in the column. That's a huge operation, and the withdrawal route is five kilometers long."

Kerry and Lavrov met twice Thursday morning in Hamburg, where both were attending an international conference. Kerry left at midday for Paris, and the two spoke again by telephone during the afternoon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic contacts.

The White House, which has long been skeptical of Moscow's sincerity in its discussions on Syria, reacted guardedly. "Our approach to this situation from the beginning has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say but scrutinize their actions," press secretary Josh Earnest said.

Last summer, the United States suspended military and diplomatic "expert" talks with Russia in Geneva over a possible cease-fire in Syria when the government siege of eastern Aleppo began with assistance from Russian air attacks. A ferocious government ground offensive in the last few weeks, with hundreds of reported civilian deaths, has retaken all but about a quarter of the territory the opposition once held in the city. Up to 200,000 civilians, and several thousand rebels, are said to remain there.

Lavrov said that he and Kerry had reached agreement to restart the Geneva talks on Saturday to determine "the ways and methods of a final settlement of the eastern Aleppo problem through the departure of all militants and those civilians residents, who will wish to do so, from there," the Russian news agency Interfax reported from Hamburg.

The State Department official said the resumption of expert talks had been "discussed" but had not yet been finalized as of late Thursday.

The immediate Kerry-Lavrov discussions are about evacuating Aleppo and "determining the timing, the safety and where [opposition fighters and civilians] are going to go," the State Department official said. France will host a meeting here Saturday morning of the United States and other governments in Europe and the region to discuss the process.

The hope is that talks in Geneva will move quickly to a Syria-wide cease-fire that will allow humanitarian aid deliveries to hundreds of thousands in besieged communities across the western third of the country, and to restart political talks between the opposition and the government of President Bashar al-Assad over a political transition.

After more than a year of start-and-stop negotiations have failed to halt the carnage in Syria, optimism was tempered. "If that occurs, we obviously would welcome that development," Earnest said. "It won't be some sort of accident or coincidence . . . it will be the product and the result of skilled, principled, tough, tenacious diplomacy and much of the credit will go to Secretary Kerry."

"But we'll see what happens," he said.</s>U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (2ndL) and France's Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault (2ndR) attend a meeting on Syria, in Paris, France, December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Thibault Camus/Pool

PARIS (Reuters) - Backers of the Syrian opposition appeared resigned to the fall of eastern Aleppo on Saturday, with the United States urging Russia to show "grace" when officials meet in Geneva to try to reach a deal for civilians and fighters to leave the city.

Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria's most populous city.

The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Thursday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country.

Critics of the operation have warned that thousands of civilians risk being caught in the crossfire and have repeatedly called on Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power to accept a ceasefire to allow civilians and rebel fighters to leave to safer areas.

Speaking in Paris after a meeting of countries that oppose Assad, including France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry showed little optimism for U.S. and Russian talks in Geneva later on Saturday.

"Our teams are meeting in Geneva today in order to flesh out details of a possible way of trying to save lives. Russia and Assad have a moment where they are in a dominant position to show a little grace," Kerry told reporters.

"I believe there could be a way forward but it depends on big, magnanimous choices from Russia ... and insistence of Russia on the Assad regime," he said.

Moscow and Washington have discussed a ceasefire to let civilians escape eastern Aleppo and aid enter. Russia also wants the United States to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out.

"Fighters ... don't trust that if they agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo that it will save Aleppo and they will be unharmed and free to move where they are not immediately attacked," Kerry said, adding that Geneva talks had to set some guarantees for rebels.

The meeting in Paris, also attended by Riad Hijab, the main opposition coordinator, underscored the powerlessness of Syrian opposition supporters, as well as some divisions between them.

Beyond the issue of humanitarian access, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Moscow and Damascus needed to realize that the fall of Aleppo would not end the war and that negotiations based on U.N. Security Council resolutions agreed in Dec. 2015 should be revived to find a political solution.

More than five years of war in Syria have killed more than 300,000 people and made more than half of Syrians homeless.

"What peace do they want? The peace of cemeteries?," Ayrault said. "Negotiations must start again... The opposition is ready to negotiate without preconditions."</s>HAMBURG (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday he was "hopeful" about reaching an agreement with Russia over the Syrian city of Aleppo but that he was still waiting for "certain feedback and input".

"We're working on something here," Kerry told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in Hamburg, Germany.

Asked if he was confident about a breakthrough, Kerry said he was not confident, but "hopeful".

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a potential U.S.-Russia deal to allow Syrian rebels to safely leave Aleppo was still on the agenda.</s>Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria's most populous city. The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Thursday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country.

Critics of the operation have warned that thousands of civilians risk being caught in the crossfire and have repeatedly called on Syrian government forces and its backers to accept a ceasefire to at least allow corridors for civilians and rebel fighters to leave to safer areas.

Speaking in Paris after a meeting of countries that oppose Assad, including France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, an exasperated Kerry showed little optimism for U.S. and Russian talks in Geneva later on Saturday.

"Our teams are meeting in Geneva today in order to flesh out details of a possible way of trying to save lives. Russia and Assad have a moment where they are in a dominant position to show a little grace," Kerry told reporters.

"I believe there could be a way forward but it depends on big, magnanimous choices from Russia ... and insistence of Russia on the Assad regime," Kerry said.

Moscow and Washington have discussed a ceasefire to let civilians escape eastern Aleppo and aid enter. Russia also wants the United States to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out.

"Fighters ... don't trust that if they agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo that it will save Aleppo and they will be unharmed and free to move where they are not immediately attacked," he said.

Rebel fighters now believed their choice was to either "die in Aleppo or die in Idlib, but die," Kerry said referring to the rebel-held city in northwestern Syria.</s>(CNN) US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday called for Russia and the Syrian regime to take steps toward finding a political solution to the conflict in Syria, urging a ceasefire and saying the fall of Aleppo would not mean an end to war.

In a strongly worded speech after a meeting of foreign ministers in Paris, Kerry said the Syrian government and Russia must provide guarantees to opposition fighters in Aleppo that they won't be "marching into a massacre" if there is a ceasefire.

The Paris meeting came ahead of talks in Geneva, Switzerland, between US and Russian officials on the situation in Aleppo, where an estimated 100,000 people are trapped in dire conditions in a shrinking rebel-held area as Syrian regime forces advance.

Speaking alongside the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Qatar, Kerry said civilians must be given safe passage out of Aleppo and humanitarian aid allowed in.

Why is Aleppo so important in Syria?

Why is Aleppo so important in Syria? 01:28

Why is Aleppo so important in Syria?

He said there "could be a way forward" but it would depend on the Syrian regime and its powerful backer, Russia, giving rebel fighters confidence they could leave Aleppo safely.

"The choice for many of them as they think about it today is: Die in Aleppo or die in Idlib, but die. That's the way they see the choice," he said of the opposition forces.

"And it seems to me that the (Syrian) regime and Russia have a fundamental responsibility here that if they are trying to effect a genuine transition ... and a genuine cessation of hostilities to permit people to move, they need to provide guarantees and allow guarantees to be put in place that make certain that people are not marching into a massacre."

Kerry urged both Russia and the regime to "show a little grace" to find a mediated solution, warning that if Aleppo were to fall, it would not mean an end to the war but would risk emboldening extremist forces in the country.

The secretary of state also warned the Syrian regime was committing war crimes in its bombardment of eastern Aleppo.

"The indiscriminate bombing by the regime which violates international rules of war -- in many cases crimes, crimes against humanity, and war crimes -- needs to stop," he said.

"And those who support it -- those in Moscow and elsewhere -- should do their utmost to bring it to a close. A meaningful ceasefire needs to be reached."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad views all opposition fighters as "terrorists," a stance that Russia shares.

Germany: No giving up on humanitarian aid

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was "speechless" over the worsening situation in Aleppo.

"There are no words to describe the suffering in Aleppo and the absolute destruction of the city. The first priority must be to limit the suffering of these people," he said. "We have attempted several times to deliver aid to the people in Aleppo and it has failed. But that doesn't mean we can afford to give up."

Steinmeier highlighted the plight of the Syria Civil Defense, or White Helmets, whose volunteers continue to rescue those caught up in bombings despite great risk.

And he stressed that the presence of extremist groups in Aleppo doesn't justify the "total destruction" of a city by those fighting them.

"Even if Aleppo falls other fighting will keep happening in Syria," he said. "We will have to hold people accountable. People who are guilty of war crimes. We will do everything to put an end to this and find a political solution."

Following the meeting, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault tweeted what he believes are the three top priorities for Syria.

First was implementing a ceasefire, stopping the bombing and establishing access to humanitarian aid.

His second priority was to define the conditions for a political transition to guarantee peace in Syria, and the third was to continue to fight terrorism, starting with the fight against ISIS.

Tens of people were killed from Friday evening into Saturday in government-controlled Aleppo, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group and the state-run Syrian news agency SANA.

Twenty-five people have been killed and dozens more wounded after rebels fired mortar rounds at neighborhoods in regime-held areas of western Aleppo since Friday evening, the monitoring group said.

SANA, meanwhile, reported that 20 were killed and 165 wounded Friday and Saturday in the apparent rebel shelling of western Aleppo.

There are no numbers yet for how many have been killed Saturday in shelling and strikes on remaining rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.</s>BEIRUT – Russia said the Syrian army was suspending combat operations in Aleppo late Thursday to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods, but residents and fighters reported no let-up in the bombing and shelling campaign on the opposition’s ever-shrinking enclave.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet Saturday in Geneva to work out details of the rebels’ exit from Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods, along with civilians who were willing to leave the city.

Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat action late Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a three-mile route. However, opposition activists said there was no halt to the government offensive.

“Battles are intense,” said a message from a rebel operation room shared with The Associated Press. Other residents reported warplanes firing from machine guns at rebel positions and artillery shells falling in the remaining rebel-controlled districts.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. was focused on de-escalating the violence in Aleppo to allow aid into the city and enable people wishing to stay in their homes to do so.

She said Kerry and Lavrov continued talks on Thursday with the goal of securing a cease-fire and the “safe departure of those who wish to leave the city.” She said details of Saturday’s U.S.-Russian technical discussions in Geneva were still being worked out.

Earlier, in Geneva, U.N. special adviser Jan Egeland said efforts to evacuate hundreds of wounded people from eastern Aleppo had stalled following a deadly attack this week on a Russian military hospital in government-controlled western Aleppo that left two Russian nurses dead and a doctor seriously wounded.

“It is with bitterness and frustration that we have to report that we have not been able even to evacuate the wounded,” Egeland said. “The member states that are supposed to help us get access to civilians in the cross-fire are poles apart in how they regard what is happening in Syria.”

He said Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government had authorized U.N.-organized aid shipments into eastern Aleppo for the first time. However, he provided no details about how the aid might get in or where it would go, and past agreements have fallen through before any aid could be delivered.

The rebel defenses have buckled amid the wide-ranging government offensive, which opened a number of fronts at once and was preceded by an intensive aerial campaign. More than three-quarters of the rebel sector has now fallen, including the symbolically important ancient Aleppo quarters. More than 30,000 of the estimated 275,000 residents of the besieged eastern enclave have fled to western Aleppo.

In comments published Thursday in the state-owned al-Watan newspaper, Assad said he would no longer consider truce offers, adding that such proposals, particularly by the Americans, often come when the rebels are in a “difficult spot.”

He said that while a victory by Syrian government forces in the battle for Aleppo would be a “big gain,” it will not end the country’s civil war.

“Liberating Aleppo from the terrorists deals a blow to the whole foundation of this project,” he said. But he added, “to be realistic, it doesn’t mean the end of the war.”

On Thursday, opposition activists reported intensive bombing in the al-Sukkari and Kallaseh neighborhoods still under rebel control.

Al-Sukkari is in the southern part of eastern Aleppo, an area that has become home to the majority of the displaced civilians who stayed behind; Kallaseh is near the Old City. Footage by the Syrian military showed intensive shelling of Bustan al-Qasr, a frontline neighborhood that links the rebel-held eastern and government-controlled western parts of the divided city.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said that it had evacuated 148 disabled civilians and others in need of urgent care from a facility in Aleppo’s Old City after fighting calmed down there.

The evacuation, undertaken jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was completed late Wednesday, the Red Cross said in a statement. The people had been trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly and included mentally and physically disabled patients, as well as injured civilians who had sought refuge there.

“They were forgotten,” said Pawel Krzysiek, the agency’s communication coordinator in Damascus. The evacuees were taken to a hospital and shelters in the western, government-held part of Aleppo.

Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.</s>Aleppo, Syria (CNN) The Syrian army has stopped all military actions in Aleppo and is focusing efforts on evacuating residents, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.

"This is the largest ever evacuation of eastern Aleppo residents, with close to 5,000 residents being moved," Lavrov told reporters at the summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, in Hamburg, Germany.

Lavrov's words were echoed by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who called this the "biggest operation for civilian evacuation."

CNN crews on the ground in Aleppo could still hear mortar rounds going off despite the announcement.

Lavrov's comments come one day after a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss ways to end the bombing of Aleppo, allow safe passage of those who want to flee the war-torn northern Syrian city, and deliver humanitarian aid to its remaining residents.

The two met for about 45 minutes Wednesday evening in Hamburg, ahead of a two-day OSCE summit. They discussed "ongoing multilateral efforts" to end the fighting in the city, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

"We're working ... and we have to wait for certain feedback and input, but we are working on something and we'll see where we get. Confident. Hopeful. We'll see where we are, " Kerry told reporters Thursday morning before leaving the OSCE meeting.

Plans to end the violence include a US-led initiative, floated on December 2, to guarantee safe passage of rebel forces out of the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo.

Russian state news agency TASS reported the Russian government supports the US initiative.

"I confirm the support to the US initiative of December 2," Lavrov told a reporter after his meeting with Kerry, according to TASS.

Lavrov and US officials are set to meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss "militants' pullout from Aleppo," according to Russian state media.

Assad not in favor of ceasefire.

He lauded the Syrian army's assault on Aleppo, claiming the effort to recapture it represents "a significant landmark" in bringing the country's 5-year civil war to a close.

However, in his first public comments since the Aleppo offensive began in mid-November, he also cautioned that retaking Aleppo did not in itself mean an end to the bloody conflict.

"The battle of Aleppo will be a gain, but to be realistic, it doesn't mean the end of the war in Syria," he said.

"It is a significant landmark towards the end of the battle, but the war in Syria will not end until terrorism is eliminated."

Overall, the rebels hold only about a quarter of war-ravaged eastern Aleppo, residents and activists inside the city told CNN.

Many civilians remain trapped in the shrinking rebel-held area, with food, fuel and medical supplies almost exhausted and no safe route out.

On Wednesday, Syrian rebels in that sector called for a five-day humanitarian ceasefire, and the Syria Civil Defense, better known as the White Helmets, Thursday called for safe passage for their volunteers, families and other humanitarian workers as Syrian government forces and their allies close in.

"If we are not evacuated our volunteers face torture and execution in the regime's detention centers and therefore we need urgent action to save the lives of humanitarians in the besieged part of the city," the group said, adding members believe they only have about 48 hours left.

James Prince, president of the Democracy Council -- which works with US-backed Syrian opposition groups -- said a lack of US support has left the opposition with no leverage to negotiate and is forcing it to surrender and leave Aleppo to stop the bombing.

"Let's be clear. This is a withdrawal by opposition forces from Aleppo in the face of massive combined force of Russia, Hezbollah and the Assad government," Prince said.

"Other than the humanitarian benefit of evacuating civilians, the reassertion of Assad's control of Syria's most populous city will lead to more bloodshed and bolster recruitment efforts of extremists like (ISIS).

"The world needs to find a comprehensive solution in Syria that involves transition to a legitimate federal government and the withdrawal of all foreign forces."

One activist in eastern Aleppo told CNN as many as 200,000 people, including rebels and their families, were crammed into 10 rebel-held neighborhoods, some having fled from other areas under fire.

He described the situation as "apocalyptic," saying the few medical facilities still operating were packed with injured civilians and resembled "slaughterhouses," with no medical supplies or proper equipment.

Dozens of people have been killed daily in the strikes and crossfire between the regime and rebels since the Syrian forces began their push into eastern Aleppo on November 26, activist groups said.</s>Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry met with a group of civil society activists from Europe and Central Asia in Hamburg, Germany on the margins of the 23rd Ministerial Council Meeting of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The activists were participants and leaders of a parallel civil society conference convened by the Civic Solidarity Platform, a network of more than 80 non-governmental organizations from the OSCE region.

Secretary Kerry used the meeting to express the United States’ enduring commitment to supporting the essential work of human rights defenders, lawyers, independent journalists, and other members of civil society. He noted that only through strengthening democratic governance, respecting the rule of law, and welcoming the contributions of an informed civil society can governments achieve durable security and prosperity. He welcomed recommendations presented to him by the activists, which identified concrete areas for action by OSCE participating States and OSCE institutions.

The activists from Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, including Crimea, raised specific cases of concern and broader trends in their countries and regions. Secretary Kerry affirmed that the United States would continue to raise concerns about the shrinking space for civil society activism caused by restrictive laws and practices, such as the false labeling of civil society organizations as “foreign agents,” and the misuse of broad anti-extremism laws to persecute peaceful members of religious and ethnic groups and those with dissenting views.
Russia and the United States will continue talks on Aleppo after talks between the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.