Ankara, Turkey’s capital, said it suspected the aim was to starve the population into submission.
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Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, are threatening to cut off rebel-held zones of the city, still home to around 350,000 people, while more than a million live in government-controlled areas.
Syrians who have managed to cross into Turkey, often by bribing Turkish border guards by paying $1,200 a person or paying people smugglers, say their journey was an ever-more-frightening trek with airstrikes following them from town to town.
“Thousands of people, mainly families with women and children, are waiting to enter Turkey”, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called “moderate” rebel groups, which are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.
Pro-government forces have taken control of the village of Marasteh Khan in northern, rural Aleppo, and are now only 750 yards (700m) away from the towns of Nubbul and al-Zahraa, Shiite communities that are largely loyal to the government.
“Now the northern countryside [of Aleppo] is totally encircled and the humanitarian situation is very hard”.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the capture of Ratyan.
“In many respects, a siege of Aleppo has in fact happened”, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday. In a statement Friday, the United Nations’ refugee agency said it estimated about 15,000 Syrians had left Aleppo due to attacks by Syrian government forces. Western countries have lined up in opposition to Assad.
Russian Federation began its airstrikes in late September, ostensibly going after Islamic State extremists who control large areas of northeastern Syria. However, critics say Russian warplanes have struck a wide range of opposition targets in order to bolster Assad, a longtime ally.
The Syrian army and its allies broke a years-long rebel blockade of two Shi’ite towns in Aleppo province on Wednesday, cutting off a major supply line from Turkey to Aleppo. Most of the rebels’ supplies flow across the Turkish border.
The Syrian government offensive comes after the collapse of peace talks earlier this week.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre said the opposition couldn’t be expected to negotiate “with a gun to their heads”, and British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Churkin “needs to look in the mirror and understand where the responsibility lies”.
Russian Federation on Thursday had claimed Turkey was planning to invade Syria, saying it had spotted troops and military equipment on the border with the war-torn country.
The NATO chief also criticised Russia’s military build-up in Syria and in the eastern Mediterranean as stoking regional tensions, especially with key alliance member Turkey. Ankara has dismissed this as propaganda meant to hide Russia’s own “crimes”.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was equally critical of Russia’s role in Syria, charging Moscow with “torpedoing” the peace talks.
“Jabhat Al-Nusra is a terrorist organization recognized by the UN Security Council”.
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Local media activist group al-Buraq Media published this video on Thursday that purports to show the aftermath of Russian airstrikes on the Mashhad neighborhood in Aleppo.
