The road wraps around Aleppo’s eastern and northern edges then leads into rebel-controlled territory north of the battered city.
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Syrian regime forces cut off the last road into rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Thursday, effectively laying siege to eastern portions of the city just a day after the Syrian army announced a 72-hour ceasefire, Reuters reported.
A USA intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syrian and Russian forces appeared to be pressing their offensive to encircle some 250,000 people inside areas of rebel-held northern Aleppo despite the announced 72-hour nationwide ceasefire and an all-but collapsed cessation of hostilities declared by the United States and Russia in February.
The army has been pressing its advance to retake the rebels’ sole supply route to the city in heavy fighting.
Ten women and two children were among those killed in Idlib, where Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra too operates.
Syrian state media and opposition monitoring groups said insurgents bombarded government-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, killing eight people there and wounding dozens.
In Aleppo, forces of President Bashar Assad strategically took actions against rebel positions and patrolled the only road leading to the rebel-held half of the city – which, with more than 2 million people, is Syria’s most populated.
Near Aleppo, fighting continued between members of the Islamic State group and the US -backed predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces near the IS stronghold of Manbij.
It was not clear whether Syrian or Russian warplanes carried out the strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that 250,000 to 300,000 people live in rebel-held parts of the city.
“The fight for Castello will continue, and our forces are preparing heavy attacks on the pro-Assad troops there”, rebel spokesman Saleh al-Zein told ARA News in Aleppo.
The Saudi-backed main Syrian opposition body, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura in Rome that it was premature to set a date for fresh peace talks he was seeking ahead of an August deadline for the warring parties to present outlines of a political deal.
The statement said the Syrians requested the crew help strike the IS fighters and the helicopter was shot down after the crew exhausted the aircraft’s ammunition and were leaving the scene.
De Mistura urged no let-up in peace efforts.
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Russian Federation said the truce went into effect after midnight Wednesday.
