Although the regime still has access to western Aleppo through the north, the route is not safe enough for civilians trying to escape the fighting to pass, SOHR head Rami Abdurrahman told Reuters.
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The Army of Conquest, a coalition of rebel groups including Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly the al-Nusra Front), said in a statement on Sunday that it would “double the number of fighters for this next battle”.
Steadfast regime ally Moscow has provided air support for forces loyal to the President since last September.
Fears are growing in government-held western Aleppo that it might become besieged by rebels, as east Aleppo has been by government forces, because the main route south to Damascus for goods transport, the Ramousah road, has been severed.
The leader of a Syrian opposition group, Anas al-Abdah, meanwhile, hailed the breaching of the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods of Aleppo as “miraculous”.
In another report, the Observatory said an air strike near a hospital in northwestern Syria on Saturday killed 10 people including children and damaged the hospital.
Abdel Rahman said there were intermittent air strikes and clashes on the southern edges of the city on Sunday, where the opposition alliance overran a series of buildings in a military academy the previous evening.
According to the statement, ISIS took civilians prisoners to use as human shields as they were pushed to the city’s northern districts, reportedly executing anyone who did not follow their orders.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) congratulated rebels on making “spectacular gains (which send) a clear message to the Assad regime, Iran and Russian Federation that they will not be able to defeat the Syrian people or dictate the terms of a settlement”.
Syrian Army troops, backed by voluntary forces, are fighting to recapture the strategic northern city from terrorist groups.
“Unifying our efforts and ranks is imperative to meet the goals of the Syrian revolution”, Jabhat Fateh al Sham announced, anticipating “a complete merger between all honest groups”.
Earlier this week air-strikes were the main focus with Russian Federation.
“Whoever wins (in Aleppo), the war will not end”.
But if the regime wins, Pierret expected a “collapse” of the rebel insurgency in its heartland of Idlib. Only days earlier, residents had been hunkering down for a long siege that could have lead to a humanitarian crisis and crippled the opposition in its most important stronghold.
The city has been a battleground since 2012, when it was stormed by the opposition and divided into a regime-controlled western half and an east under rebel dominion. Any side being able to control the city would thus lay claim to a significant military and political victory.
An AFP journalist in the eastern districts said one truck of vegetables entered late Saturday to be sold in the markets the following day.
The monitor said more than 700 fighters from both sides had been killed in the onslaught, majority rebels because of the regime’s “aerial superiority”.
Fierce fighting – some of the most ferocious in the conflict’s five-year history – has raged around the southwestern Aleppo, particularly around the strategically crucial Al Ramouseh neighborhood, as the rebels launched a concerted push to break the siege and allow for the resupply of the encircled enclave.
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The United Nations has been hoping to revive peace talks between the government and rebels.
