The offensive came amid fierce air strikes on the city, in a major Russian backed offensive that has left Washington’s Syria policy in tatters.
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They had been fighting to take the camp for months because it is on high ground that overlooks the rebel-held east of the city.
After the second planned ceasefire in Syria collapsed on Monday, the Syrian army is working to retake the parts of Aleppo that are now held by rebels.
While intra-Syria negotiations remain the aim of the Western powers and Russian Federation, a broad coalition of 33 Syrian rebel factions issued a statement Sunday saying: “Negotiations under the present conditions are no longer useful and are meaningless”.
The United States and Russian Federation failed in talks on September 23 to reestablish a cease-fire in Syria amid a day of massive air attacks on rebel-held areas of Aleppo which reportedly killed dozens of people.
He said a US -led coalition air strike that killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers on September 17 was intentional “and not an error, even if the United States claims otherwise”.
Mr Assad and his allies seem more determined than ever to crush the almost six-year-old rebellion by force. The unprecedented bombing, which began late Wednesday, has targeted residential areas, infrastructure and Civil Defense centers.
Rebel officials said heavy air strikes on Saturday hit at least four areas of the opposition-held east, home to more than 250,000 people.
In the rebel-held eastern suburbs, residents said scores of civilians had been killed or injured, pushing doctors to work 24-hour shifts and treat patients on bloodied floors when beds ran out.
In a statement Saturday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the escalation as “chilling” and said the apparent systematic use of incendiary weapons and bunker buster bombs may amount to war crimes.
Colonel Fares al-Bayoush, head of the Northern Division group, told Reuters he expected rebels to get new types of Russian-made rocket launchers and artillery, but there was no sign of foreign states agreeing to the rebels’ long-held demand for anti-aircraft missiles.
In between the raids, White Helmet volunteers frantically searched for those trapped in the rubble of demolished buildings, often with their bare hands. Wissam Zarqa, an English teacher, said his own Aleppo neighborhood was lucky to receive water every 15 days.
The Syrian army says it is determined to retake rebel-held areas in Aleppo, after a ceasefire collapsed on Monday.
A pro-government Iraqi militia commander in the Aleppo area told Reuters the aim was to capture all of Aleppo within a week. He said experts are removing explosives from the area. “Most of the victims are under the rubble because more than half the civil defence has been forced out of service”.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that government troops seized buildings on the frontline, pushing back rebel fighters in the southern al-Amiriah district. “We’re evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way”, Kerry said before a meeting with Asia-Pacific ministers on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
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But the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Robbins in NY says there appears to be little hope of any diplomatic progress and that, with the violence in Syria this week, jaw-jaw has absolutely lost out to war-war.
