MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian military said on Friday it had helped more than 8,000 Syrian citizens flee parts of eastern Aleppo still controlled by rebels in the last 24 hours, including almost 3,000 children.

The Russian military said in a statement that 14 rebels had also surrendered to Syrian government forces, laying down their weapons and crossing into western Aleppo. They had all been pardoned, it said.

Russia's RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday as saying that the Syrian army, which has captured territory including Aleppo's historic Old City in recent days, had halted military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held territory.

However, Reuters reporters in a government-held part of the city said bombardment could still be heard after his remarks were published. Washington said it had no confirmation that the army had ceased fire.

The Russian defense ministry said its forces were working hard to de-mine areas in eastern Aleppo which Syrian government forces had captured from rebels.

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Geneva (AFP) - The UN human rights office voiced concern Friday that hundreds of men may have gone missing after fleeing eastern Aleppo into government-controlled parts of the city.  

"While it's very difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation, we have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas," rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva. 

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DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab states that have funded and armed the rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are not yet ready to give up on aiding the insurgency, even as the rebels seem headed for defeat.

The past two weeks have seen rebels driven from most of the territory they held in Aleppo, once Syria's largest city, the eastern half of which had been in their hands since 2012. Defeat there would cost them their last major urban bastion.

The insurgents have also lost important territory in the suburbs of Damascus and elsewhere in recent months, with Assad now appearing closer to victory than at any point since protests against him evolved into an armed uprising five years ago.

That has plunged the Sunni Muslim Arab rulers into doubt and introspection, after years of calling for Assad's overthrow and backing the rebels against him in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

For much of the conflict, countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been providing arms and funds to insurgents vetted as "moderate" by Western intelligence agencies, through a coordination center in Turkey.

They have also offered diplomatic support to opposition groups that consider themselves an alternative government in waiting, and encouraged them to refuse any final settlement that fails to remove Assad from power.

But while the rebels no longer appear to have any path to victory, analysts in the region say the wealthy Gulf monarchies are not ready to give up on them. They could continue to fund and arm a guerrilla insurgency based in rural areas, even if the rebels no longer administer major cities and towns.

"I believe the Gulf states will continue to support the opposition. They will not stop now," said writer and researcher Khaled al-Dakheel.

The Gulf states consider Assad's sponsor Iran to be their arch enemy, are also fighting a war in Yemen against a Shi'ite movement they say is backed by Tehran, and have an interest in perpetuating the Syrian war even if victory is beyond reach.

According to Dakheel, the Gulf rulers are hoping for a boost from Washington with the looming change in U.S. presidential administration. They believe outgoing President Barack Obama was too reluctant to commit military force to confronting Assad and too soft on Iran more generally, and hope for a tougher line from Donald Trump.

So far, Trump has given mixed signals about his plans for the Middle East, promising on the one hand to take a harder line against Iran, but on the other hand suggesting he favors Russia's support for Iran's ally Assad.

Gulf states "will look at the position of the new administration. That position is still vague and presented a confused picture. How can you take a hardline stance and do not mind Assad staying (in power)?" Dakheel said.

Waiting on Trump

Saud Humaid Assubayii, security affairs committee chairman at Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, an appointed advisory body, told Reuters he too expected Gulf Arab officials would wait to see what stance Trump will take on Syria.

Gulf states believe that a stronger line from Obama would have produced a different outcome, he said. Obama threatened to take military action against Assad's government to punish it for using chemical weapons in 2013, but then canceled the strikes at the last minute after a Russian-brokered deal under which Assad agreed to give up his poison gas arsenal.

"The U.S. has its own weight.... America is an important factor," Assubayii said, speaking in a personal capacity. "Of course, if Obama had stood up to his promises, things would have been changed and worked out differently.”

A Gulf diplomat based in Qatar, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said the Arab states were setting their policy first and foremost in response to Tehran. 

"Iran’s behavior is dictating Gulf actions and plans. If Iran is more cooperative that will ease worries and slow military escalation in the Gulf," he said. "But if Iran continues to intervene then Arab countries will speed up military efforts to block Iran." 

The likelihood of defeat means Arab governments will be casting around for blame. Some analysts say division among the Arab states has helped reduce the effectiveness of the rebel fighters.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar at times supported rival rebel groups. Egypt, the most populous Arab country, has even appeared to switch sides in recent months, providing public support for Assad, to the outrage of Riyadh which has provided billions of dollars in aid to Cairo.

"There wasn't a unified international position. Each country had its own interests and they supported different groups," said Ebtesam Al Ketbi, head of the Emirates Policy Center think tank. 

"The lack of a unified vision weakened the Gulf role. This, of course in addition to the procrastination of the Obama administration," she added.

(Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall, Tom Finn, Maha El Dahan and Tulay Karadeniz, Editing by William Maclean and Peter Graff)

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Iraqi forces continue to battle ISIS neighborhood by neighborhood in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and ISIS' last stronghold in the country.

In neighboring Syria, progress against the terrorist group has been less forthcoming. While fighting rages in Aleppo, operations against Raqqa, ISIS' capital, have been stalled. But the US-led coalition continues to target ISIS infrastructure in Syria.

On December 8, a coalition airstrike, a clip of which you can see below, obliterated 168 tanker trucks belonging to the terrorist group near Palmyra, in the center of Syria.

The strike was one of seven mounted over Syria on December 8, and it cost ISIS more than $2 million in revenue, according to an Operation Inherent Resolve release. Northeast of Palmyra, a strike destroyed an ISIS oil wellhead near Dayr Az Zawr.

"The Coalition continues to forcefully prosecute the air war on ISIL revenue capability," Col. John L. Dorrian, an Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, said in a release.

"When ISIL has access to large sums of money, they use it to conduct violent terror attacks against anyone who doesn't share their barbaric ideology," Dorrian added.

ISIS oil infrastructure in Syria has been a major target for coalition forces in recent months. 

While Kurdish militants' efforts to retake Raqqa, ISIS' capital city in northeast Syria, have largely bogged down, US-led airstrikes continue to hit oil-related targets in the surrounding province.

Farther west, the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad appears to have gained the upper hand. Earlier this week, the Syrian army and its allies looked closer than ever to retaking Aleppo, rebel forces' last urban stronghold. 

Intense fighting in much of the city has endangered the lives of thousands of Syrian civilians, many of whom have been cut off from food and aid for months and have tried to flee the city in recent days. 

While the Russian military said on Friday that it had helped more than 8,000 Syrians flee areas in eastern Aleppo, the UN has warned that 150,000 people there "are threatened with extermination."

Other UN reports have voiced concern that hundreds of Syrian men have gone missing since fleeing eastern Aleppo for Syrian government-held areas.

The US and Russia are reportedly "poles apart" from agreeing to terms for civilian evacuations from Aleppo, and the US has increasingly been on the outside looking in at the multi-party talks seeking a peaceful end to Syria's bloody, five-year civil war.

You see the full video of the December 8 strike below.

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Jeremy Corbyn's speech on human rights on Saturday was interrupted by a group of protesters holding signs that read "Sanction Russia for war crimes."

The demonstrators were led by British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who criticized the Labour leader for not demanding action on Syria.

Sky News tweeted a clip of protesters storming the stage during the speech:

"We haven't heard the leader of the Labour Party speak out enough to demand UK air drops," Tatchell announced on stage. He added: "What's happening in Aleppo is a modern-day Guernica."

Corbyn briefly left the podium but returned to address Tatchell's criticisms.

"Just to be absolutely clear on the point that Peter made," Corbyn said, "Emily Thornberry on our behalf during Foreign Office Questions and on many other occasions has made it absolutely clear that we do think there should be aid given to people in Aleppo, we do think the bombing should end, we do think there should be a ceasefire, we do think there should be a political solution, we do think the war should end in Syria."

Aleppo, one of Syria's largest cities, is the epicenter of fighting between President Bashar Assad, backed by Russia, and the rebels seeking to oust him. The fighting has set off a large-scale humanitarian crisis as civilians are bombarded daily and areas are cut off from receiving aid.

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AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants on Saturday captured most of Palmyra after breaking through Syrian army defenses and securing the heights around the ancient city in eastern Syria following a surprise assault, a monitoring group and rebels said. 

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights expressed concern over the safety of civilians inside the city because many of them are pro-government supporters.

The war monitor and rebels familiar with military operations in the area said that with the exception of southern areas most of the city was now in the hands of the militants who had waged an attack on several fronts.

The Syrian army said it had repelled an attack by the militants near major grains silos 10 kms (6 miles) east of the city and inflicted heavy losses on them. It made no mention of the assault on the city, however. 

The Syrian army earlier said it had sent reinforcements to Palmyra to help defend it. Some troops were being diverted there from Aleppo, easing pressure on rebels there who were facing a last push by the army to oust them from the city, a rebel from the countryside outside Aleppo said.

Islamic State's retaking of the city comes as President Bashar al Assad's government, supported by Russia and Iranian-backed militias, are on the verge of a major victory against rebels in Aleppo city.

The city had been recaptured from the militants last March, in what was hailed as a major victory for the government and the biggest reversal for Islamic State in Syria since Russia's intervention, which turned the tide of the conflict in Assad's favor.

A statement by Islamic State's news agency Amaq said the group had taken the strategic Jabal al Tar and Jabal Antara mountains that overlook the city in some of the heaviest fighting since the group lost the city.

Amaq said on Saturday a Syrian war plane had been downed in the Jazal oil field area northwest of Palmyra. 

The militants were pushing towards the T4 airbase, one of Syria's major military bases, nearPalmyra city and which Russian forces have been using to support the Syrian army.

A rebel contact said a large contingent of Russian troops that had been stationed in the city had been quickly pulled out.

Islamic State's assault, which began late on Thursday, has killed dozens of Syrian soldiers and quickly taken over grain silos and control of some oil and gas fields around Palmyra, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The U.S.-led coalition which is separately fighting the militants said late on Friday it had taken out 168 IS oil tanker trucks near Palmyra in a large air raid.

(Reporting by John Davison, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo, editing by Jeremy Gaunt, David Evans and Hugh Lawson)

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Beirut (AFP) - More than 10,000 civilians have fled eastern parts of Aleppo in the past 24 hours for districts of the city under the control of Syria's government, a monitor said Monday.

It takes to about 130,000 the number of civilians displaced since regime forces launched an offensive to retake the rebel-held east in mid-November, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Pro-government forces on Monday seized the Aleppo district of Sheikh Saeed, putting it in control of 90 percent of areas once held by the rebels, the Britain-based monitoring group said earlier.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the advance has left some neighbourhoods of the battleground northern city empty of civilians.

Syria's second city, Aleppo had been divided since 2012 between government forces in the west and rebel groups in the east.

In less than a month, a blistering offensive by Syria's army and allied militia has overrun most of rebel territory in the city. 

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BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's state media and an opposition monitoring group say the government troops and allied militias have seized a wide strip on the southern edge Aleppo from rebels, closing in on tens of thousands of civilians squeezed into the center of the city.

State TV says the Syrian forces fully secured Sheik Saeed neighborhood — an area interspersed with agricultural fields along the southern stretch of the rebel enclave — on Monday, after days of intense clashes.

The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights estimates the fall of Sheik Saeed leaves rebels enclosed in a small area in central Aleppo that's only 10 percent of what rebels used to control.

Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to be still trapped in that area, accessible only through government-monitored crossing points.

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Aleppo (Syria) (AFP) - The Syrian army captured a major district of Aleppo on Monday from rebel fighters, now confined to a small pocket of their former bastion in the city's east.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces held more than 90 percent of the onetime opposition stronghold, a monitor said, and appeared on the verge of retaking the whole city.

The fall of Aleppo would deal rebels their worst blow since the beginning of Syria's conflict in 2011, and leave the government in control of the country's five major cities.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported early on Monday that the army had captured the large Sheikh Saeed district in southeast Aleppo, leaving only two neighbourhoods under opposition control.

"The areas still under opposition control are very small, and they could fall at any moment," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Britain-based Observatory

"The battle for Aleppo has begun to enter the final phase," he said.

Syrian official media confirmed the army had recaptured Sheikh Saeed, with state television showing what it said was live footage from the neighbourhood.

Overnight and into Monday morning, government warplanes and artillery pounded the remaining rebel-held territory in the east of the city.

Thousands more flee

An AFP correspondent in the government-held west of Aleppo said the bombardment could be heard from there and was some of the heaviest in recent days.

Terrified residents have poured out of rebel-held neighbourhoods as the army advanced since beginning its operation on November 15.

The Observatory said Monday another 10,000 people had fled rebel areas in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of those who have left -- mostly to government-held territory -- to 130,000.

On Sunday alone, state news agency SANA said, 8,000 people fled rebel districts through government-run crossings.

It said approximately half were transferred to temporary shelters, while the rest were staying with relatives in west Aleppo.

Syria's rebels seized control of east Aleppo in 2012, a year into an uprising that began with anti-government protests but spiralled into a civil war after a regime crackdown.

The war has become a complex multi-front conflict, drawing in proxy powers and jihadists like the Islamic State group, which on Sunday overran the city of Palmyra nine months after being expelled.

IS began a new offensive in the desert east of Homs province last week, seizing government positions and oil fields before advancing on Palmyra.

It was briefly forced back from the city early Sunday, after heavy Russian air strikes and the arrival of Syrian troop reinforcements.

But despite the efforts, the Observatory said Sunday afternoon that the group had recaptured all of the city.

'Dramatic situation' 

IS held Palmyra between May 2015 and March 2016, carrying out a campaign of destruction against ancient ruins in the city that are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

On Monday, the jihadists were advancing south and west of Palmyra, fighting fierce clashes with the army near the town of Al-Qaryatain, the monitor said, as Russian warplanes carried out fresh strikes.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria's war, and over half the country displaced.

The government assault on Aleppo has killed at least 413 civilians since mid-November, according to the Observatory. Another 139 civilians have been killed in rebel fire on the west of the city in the same period, it says.

The UN children's agency said Sunday that all children in Aleppo were suffering from trauma.

"I have never seen in my life such a dramatic situation (as) what is happening to children in Aleppo," said Radoslaw Rzehak, UNICEF's field office head inside the devastated city.

Diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the conflict have repeatedly failed.

Russia last week said talks were under way with US officials on securing a ceasefire in Aleppo and the withdrawal of all rebel forces from the city. 

But despite a series of high-level meetings there was no progress in halting the fighting.

Experts say the government's recapture of Aleppo appeared to be only a matter of time.

"We're now past the point where the opposition has any hope of pulling things back," said Yezid Sayigh, a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

Assad "will have in effect broken the back of the armed opposition... and the idea that the regime can be overcome militarily will be finally put to rest." 

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It has been reported on Monday that the battle for Aleppo was nearing its end after over five years of bloody civil war.

Sky News cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, saying the rebels had retreated from the remaining six neighbourhoods, clearing the way for a government reclamation of the city.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and backed by Russian air support have been making steady gains in the city for several months, slowly pushing from the west into the opposition-held east. 

Since the war broke out five years ago, 250,000 people have been trapped in the besieged city, thousands more have died, there are no more working hospitals, and airstrikes have left ancient mosques and homes under blankets of dust and rubble.

The city is a shell of its former self.

Looking at photos of the city before and after the war serves as a sobering reminder of the catastrophic consequences of the conflict.

This is Aleppo today. For the last five years, the Syrian city has been crumbling under conflict and intense shelling from Russian-backed government forces and rebels fighting against President Assad's regime.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped in the besieged city. Hospitals and schools have been destroyed. In the east, rebel fighters are rapidly losing ground as government forces regain territory.

But life in Aleppo wasn't always this way. The city had spent centuries evolving into the country's largest industrial and commercial hub and is one of the oldest inhabited cities in human history. It was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The Russian government has been constantly lying about its willingness to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo, France's foreign minister said on Monday, accusing Moscow of intentionally deceiving its partners.

"There is Russian doublespeak ... a form of constant lies. On the one hand they say let's negotiate, and we negotiate to reach a ceasefire," Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters in Brussels following the failure of weekend talks in Paris.

"On the other, they continue the war, a total war, it's a desire to save the(Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad regime and to make Aleppo fall."

Arriving for a meeting of EU foreign ministers, he said proof that Russia's stated aim of targeting militants was false lay in reports that Islamic State had retaken the ancient city of Palmyra.

"The Russians who pretend to fight against terrorism are in fact focussing on Aleppo and have given space to Daesh (Islamic State), which is in the process of taking back Palmyra, which is very symbolic", Ayrault said.

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PARIS (Reuters) - Syria's chief opposition coordinator Riad Hijab said on Monday that defeat in Aleppo would not weaken the resolve of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad to remove him from power.

"If Assad and his allies think that a military advance in certain quarters of Aleppo will signify that we will make concessions, then (I say) that will not happen. We will not make any concessions," Hijab told reporters after meeting French President Francois Hollande.

The Syrian army and its allies are in the "final stages" of recapturing Aleppo after a sudden advance that has pushed rebels to the brink of collapse in an ever-shrinking enclave, a Syrian general said on Monday.

Hijab, once a prime minister under Assad, accused Russia of double standards by saying that the opposition was always demanding preconditions for peace talks when in reality Assad's opponents wanted international resolutions that Moscow had agreed to at the United Nations to be implemented.

"The Russians voted this resolution. Why doesn't it implement it? Why doesn't it stop bombing? Why doesn't it lift the blockades it has put in place with the Assad regime, Shi'ite militias and the Iranian revolutionary guard?"

"The Syrians are dying of hunger. We want a real political transition ... that would enable Syria to go from a dictatorship to a democratic state," he said.

Hijab, who presides over the High Negotiations Committee of opponents of Assad, also accused Assad's forces and Russia of being unwilling and unable to fight Islamic State militants who control parts of the country and on Sunday retook the ancient city of Palmyra.

"Facing Daesh in Palmyra, they flee like rats. They are lions only in the face of disarmed civilians who cannot defend themselves, but when faced with Daesh in Palmyra or elsewhere they run like rabbits," Hijab said.

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ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and its allies are in the "final stages" of recapturing Aleppo after a sudden advance that has pushed rebels to the brink of collapse in an ever-shrinking enclave, a Syrian general said on Monday.

A Reuters journalist in the government-held zone said the bombardment of rebel areas of the city had continued non-stop overnight, and a civilian trapped there described the situation as resembling "Doomsday".

"The battle in eastern Aleppo should end quickly. They (rebels) don't have much time. They either have to surrender or die," Lieutenant General Zaid al-Saleh, head of the government's Aleppo security committee, told reporters in the recaptured Sheikh Saeed district of the city.

Rebels withdrew from all districts on the east side of the Aleppo river after losing Sheikh Saeed in the south of their pocket in overnight fighting, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It meant their rapidly diminishing enclave had halved in only a few hours and Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman described the battle for Aleppo as having reached its end.

"The situation is extremely difficult today," said Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim rebel group fighting in Aleppo.

An official from Jabha Shamiya, a rebel faction that is also present in Aleppo, said the insurgents might make a new stand along the west bank of the river.

"It is expected there will be a new front line," said the official, who is based in Turkey.

The rebels' sudden retreat represented a "big collapse in terrorist morale", a Syrian military source said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, is now close to taking back full control of Aleppo, which was Syria's most populous city before the war and would be his greatest prize so far after nearly six years of conflict.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that since the start of the Aleppo battle, more than 2,200 rebels had surrendered and 100,000 civilians had left areas of the city that were controlled by militants.

"People run from one shelling to another to escape death and just to save their souls ... It's doomsday in Aleppo, yes doomsday in Aleppo," said Abu Amer Iqab, a former government employee in the Sukkari district in the heart of the rebel enclave.

State television footage from Saliheen, one of the districts that had just fallen to the army, showed mounds of rubble and half-collapsed buildings, with bodies still lying on the ground and a few bewildered civilians carrying children or suitcases.

Rebels

While Aleppo's fall would deal a stunning blow to rebels trying to remove Assad from power, he would still be far from restoring control across Syria. Swathes of the country remain in rebel hands, and on Sunday Islamic State retook Palmyra.

Tens of thousands of civilians remain in rebel-held areas, hemmed in by ever-changing front lines, pounded by air strikes and shelling, and without basic supplies, according to the Observatory, a British-based monitoring group.

In the Sheikh Saeed district, an elderly couple stood lamenting their fate.

"May every son return to his mother. I have suffered that loss. May other women not endure the same," said the woman, her arms raised to the sky. "I have lost my three children. Two died in battle and the third is kidnapped," she added, as an army officer attempted to calm her.

Rebel groups in Aleppo received a U.S.-Russian proposal on Sunday for a withdrawal of fighters and civilians from the city's opposition areas, but Moscow said no agreement had been reached yet in talks in Geneva to end the crisis peacefully.

The rebel official blamed Russia for the lack of progress in talks, saying it had no incentive to compromise while Assad was gaining ground. "The Russians are being evasive. They are looking at the military situation. Now they are advancing," he said.

The U.S. National Security Council also said, in a message passed on by the American mission in Geneva, that Moscow had rejected a ceasefire. "We proposed an immediate cessation of hostilities to allow for safe departures and the Russians so far have refused," it said in a statement.

Fighting

The Syrian army is backed by Russian war planes and Lebanese and Iraqi Shi'ite militias supported by Iran. Its advances on Monday were aided by a militia of Palestinian refugees in Syria, the Liwa al-Quds or Jerusalem Brigade, the general said.

The mostly Sunni rebels include groups backed by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies as well as hardline jihadists who are not supported by the West.

A correspondent for Syria's official SANA news agency said the army had taken control of Sheikh Saeed, and more than 3,500 people had left at dawn.

A Syrian official told Reuters: "We managed to take full control of the Sheikh Saeed district. This area is very important because it facilitates access to al-Amariya and allows us to secure a greater part of the Aleppo-Ramousah road." The road is the main entry point to the city from the south.

Riad Hijab, Syria's chief opposition coordinator, said the rebels' defeat in Aleppo would not weaken the resolve of Assad's opponents, or push them to water down the demand that he quit.

"If Assad and his allies think that a military advance in certain quarters of Aleppo will signify that we make concessions, then (I say) that will not happen," he told reporters after meeting French President Francois Hollande.

The loss of Palmyra, an ancient desert city whose recapture from Islamic State in March was heralded by Damascus and Moscow as vindicating Russia's entry into the war, is an embarrassing setback to Assad.

The Observatory reported that the jihadist group carried out eight executions of Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen in Palmyra on Monday while warplanes bombarded their positions around the city.

Still, Islamic State made further advances around Palmyra, it and the Observatory said on Monday, including coming close to a military air base.

Another four people, including two children, were shot dead while the jihadists cleared the city, the Observatory said.

It said at least 34 people had died in air raids on an Islamic State-held village north of Palmyra, and that local officials said poison gas had been used. Islamic State accused Russia of the attack. Both Russia and Syria's military deny using chemical weapons.

Civilians

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday that 728 rebels had laid down their weapons over the previous 24 hours and relocated to western Aleppo. It said 13,346 civilians left rebel-controlled districts of Aleppo over the same period.

"Displaced people are moving," said an Aleppo resident. Some were moving from areas controlled by the army to opposition areas, while others were going in the opposite direction. Some were staying at home waiting for the army.

The Observatory said that four weeks into the army offensive at least 415 civilians, including 47 children, had been killed in rebel-held parts of the city.

The Observatory said 364 rebel fighters had been killed in the eastern sector. It said rebel shelling of government-held west Aleppo had killed 130 civilians including 40 children.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam in Aleppo, Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry in Beirut, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Moscow (AFP) - The Kremlin on Monday deplored the lack of cooperation with the United States in Palmyra after Islamic State jihadists re-entered the ancient Syrian city over the weekend.

"We regret that we have yet to completely neutralise their offensive," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the fighters' return to the fabled city after an eight-month absence. 

"We also regret that there still is a lack of coordinated action and real cooperation with other states -- with the United States first and foremost -- that do not want to cooperate, and this cooperation could allow us to avoid such attacks by terrorists."

Peskov added that jihadists from neighbouring Iraq, where a Western coalition is supporting the Iraqi military's efforts to retake the city of Mosul from IS, had been flooding into Syria.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later suggested that the movement of IS fighters fleeing an Iraqi assault on Mosul to Syria and the offensive on Palmyra might be part of an orchestrated plan to ease pressure on rebel groups in the second city of Aleppo. 

"It makes me think, and I hope I am wrong, that it is all orchestrated in order to give a respite to the bandits still in eastern Aleppo," Lavrov said.

Pentagon officials hit back at Moscow's claims, saying Russia had taken its eye off Palmyra while it focused on bombing Aleppo.

"It appears that Russia has failed to sustain the singular gain against (IS) they had achieved since their military intervention on behalf of (President Bashar al-Assad) regime," said Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman.

"This is a further demonstration of why, as we have long advocated, Russia must change their focus."

Russia's defence ministry said Sunday that its war planes had carried out more than 60 overnight strikes on Palmyra, claiming to have "thwarted all terrorist attacks" on the city. 

Russia has carried out a bombing campaign in Syria in support of Assad since September 2015. 

Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes and special forces on the ground recaptured the UNESCO world heritage site from IS fighters in March, delivering a major propaganda coup for both Damascus and Moscow. 

Regime forces are currently focused on a major offensive fighting other insurgent groups in the second city of Aleppo that has seen them seize back most of the rebel-held stronghold. 

The deadly war in Syria has killed more than 300,000 people since it started in March 2011 with a wave of anti-government protests. 

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ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's army and its allies have taken full control over all the Aleppo districts abandoned by rebels during their retreat in the city, a Syrian military source said on Tuesday.

On Monday rebel defenses collapsed, leading to a broad army advance across more than half of the remaining insurgent pocket in Aleppo and a retreat of opposition fighters to a few districts on the west bank of the city's river.

Recapturing the entire rebel pocket of Aleppo will constitute the biggest battlefield victory yet for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his military coalition of Russia's air force, Iran and Shi'ite militias.

For rebels, it will mark a sobering loss and leave them without a significant presence in any of Syria's main cities. They still hold much of the countryside west of Aleppo and the province of Idlib, also in northwest Syria.

After days of intense bombardment of rebel-held areas, the rate of shelling and air strikes dropped considerably late on Monday and through the night, a Reuters reporter in the city said.

The military official said the rebels were fleeing "in a state of panic", but a Turkey-based official with the Jabha Shamiya insurgent group in Aleppo said late on Monday that they had established a new front line along the river.

Celebrations on the government side of the divided city lasted into Monday night, with the Reuters reporter there describing the bullets coming "like rainfall" as fighters shot into the air in triumph.

As the frontlines quickly shifted on Monday, however, thousands more people fled the fighting, carrying what possessions they could carry and sometimes pushing relatives in wheelchairs, before a heavy rainstorm began in the night.

The International Committee for the Red Cross issued a plea in an emailed statement early on Monday for all sides to spare civilian life.

The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was alarmed by unverified reports of atrocities in the wake of the army's advance, his spokesman said late on Monday.

"As the battle reaches new peaks and the area is plunged into chaos thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to run," the ICRC statement said.

Zakaria Malahifji, another Turkey-based official for the Fastaqim rebel group fighting in Aleppo said early on Tuesday that there had been no further international contacts over a proposal to spare the city by allowing fighters to withdraw.

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The battle for Aleppo is drawing to a close as thousands of civilians are still trapped in the eastern part of the city.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that lives are at risk as "thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to run."

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also raised the alarm about atrocities against civilians in parts of the city re-taken by Bashar al-Assad's militias and army. Reports have suggested that locals are being executed, tortured, and raped.

The rebels announced late Tuesday afternoon (GMT) that they had reached a cease-fire deal with Russia to evacuate some opposition forces and civilians from the city. About 40,000 people will be allowed to leave, a source within the opposition with knowledge of the talks told Business Insider.

Civilians inside the rebel-held eastern part of the city have, through social media, shared the horrors going on inside Aleppo. After most defences collapsed on Monday and the Syrian army started advancing on the last part of the city, many of them, still trapped in the eastern part of the city, have been posting harrowing final goodbye messages in the past few hours.

Rami Zien, whose Twitter bio says he is a Syrian journalist and activist based in eastern Aleppo and a former freelance photographer for Reuters. He sent this tweet at 12:59 p.m. GMT on December 13:

His previous tweet was sent on December 12 at 6:13 p.m. GMT:

Lina Shamy, whose Twitter bio says "to the great Syrian Revolution I belong," posted her last message on December 13 at 2:41 a.m. GMT:

Earlier on Monday night, she had tweeted this video:

"To everyone who can hear me, we are here exposed to a genocide in the besieged city of Aleppo. This might be my last video. More than 50,000 people who rebelled against the dictator Bashar al-Assad are threatened with field executions or dying under bombings."

She then spoke about reports that people were being executed in parts of the city that had been retaken by Assad forces. She added that the civilians in eastern Aleppo were stuck in small area with no safe zones.

Monther Etaky, a journalist and "activist against Assad's regime" according to his Twitter bio, posted this tweet on December 12 at 11:54 p.m. GMT:

And this one on December 13 at 7:26 a.m. GMT:

Zouhir Al-Shimale, whose Twitter bio says he is a freelance journalist, tweeted this on December 13 at 8:34 a.m. GMT:

Bana Alabed, a seven-year-old girl, and her mother, have been tweeting about what is happening in eastern Aleppo for months. The last tweet from the account was sent at 9:06 a.m. GMT on December 13:

Bilial Abdul Kareem, whose Twitter bio says he is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. His last tweet was sent at 5:33 p.m. GMT on December 12. This is the penultimate one:

Mr Alhamdo, whose Twitter bio says he is a teacher, activist and reporter in eastern Aleppo. His last tweet was sent at 4:47 a.m. GMT:

In a statement, the White Helmets, a group of volunteer search and rescue workers who have been saving lives in eastern Aleppo since the war started, have estimated that 100,000 civilians are stuck in the city. They now say: "We can do no more."

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The United Nations said on Tuesday it had reports of Syrian government troops and allied Iraqi militia killing civilians in eastern Aleppo, including 82 people in four different neighborhoods in the last few days.

Thousands of people have fled the front lines of fighting in Aleppo on Tuesday as the Syrian military advanced on the final pocket of rebel resistance. A senior Turkish official also said Russia and Turkey would meet to try to set up an evacuation corridor.

Rupert Colville, spokesman of the UN human rights office, voiced deep fear of retribution against thousands of civilians still believed to be holed up in a "hellish corner" of less than a square kilometer of opposition-held areas.

"In all as of yesterday (Monday) evening we have received reports of pro-government forces killing least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, in 4 different neighborhoods," Colville told a news briefing, adding that there could be "many more."

In a statement, the UN said that multiple sources reported that tens of civilians were shot dead yesterday in four different neighbourhoods — Bustan al-Qasr, al-Ferdous, al-Kallaseh, and al-Saleheen — by government forces and their allies, including allegedly the Iraqi al-Nujabaa armed group.

The conflict in Aleppo is nearing its end as Syrian government forces have retaken most of the city, but an estimated 100,000 people are still stuck in the centre of east Aleppo and many of them have shared on goodbye messages on social media.

"The reports we had are of people being shot in the street trying to flee and shot in their homes." Jens Laerke, UN humanitarian spokesman said that it looked like "a complete meltdown of humanity in Aleppo."

Many unaccompanied children, possibly more than 100, are trapped in a building that is under heavy attack in besieged eastern Aleppo in Syria, the UN children's agency UNICEF said in a statement on Tuesday, citing an unnamed doctor in the city.

“According to alarming reports from a doctor in the city, many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo," UNICEF Regional Director Geert Cappelaere said in the statement.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said on Tuesday that the international community could not let the situation continue and warned that populations of other rebel-held towns could face the same fate.

"The crushing of Aleppo, the immeasurably terrifying toll on its people, the bloodshed, the wanton slaughter of men, women and children, the destruction – and we are nowhere near the end of this cruel conflict. What can happen next, if the international community continues to collectively wring its hands, can be much more dangerous. What is happening with Aleppo could repeat itself in Douma, in Raqqa, in Idlib. 

"The world is watching Aleppo – and we are documenting the violations being committed against its people, with the firm conviction that one day those who are responsible will be held to account. We must ensure that this happens. The hellish suffering to which the people of Syria are being subjected must stop."

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Syrian rebel officials announced late Tuesday morning that they had reached a cease-fire deal with Russia to evacuate some opposition forces and civilians from the besieged city of eastern Aleppo.

The talks, which were moderated by Turkish officials in Ankara, appeared to culminate in a deal that would allow 40,000 civilians to leave the city, a source within the opposition with knowledge of the talks told Business Insider.

The UN's envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said in a press conference on Tuesday that the process to evacuate civilians from the city had already begun. Rebels with light arms would be allowed to evacuate the city as well.

"The opposition's armed groups also can leave Aleppo, following the civilian population," a Turkish official tweeted. "They may go to Idlib, according to the agreement."

Russia's envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday that "the military activities in east Aleppo have stopped" and that the government "has established control over east Aleppo."

The cease-fire deal came amid reports that pro-government forces, including regime troops and Shiite militias backed by Iran — another Assad ally — had summarily executed dozens of civilians, including women and children, as they moved to clear rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Monday.

Many of the civilians executed by pro-government forces were injured and awaiting treatment in the city's makeshift medical facilities, reports from the scene said. Others were trying to flee their homes.

It's "a complete meltdown of humanity," United Nations humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said.

The government forces also reportedly set fire to a building used to house people who had been displaced in the fighting, with possibly more than 100 children trapped inside.

"According to alarming reports from a doctor in the city, many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo," Unicef said in a statement. "We urge all parties to the conflict to allow the safe and immediate evacuation of all children."

Civilians being treated at the underground Hayat Medical Center in Aleppo, run by the Syrian American Medical Society, were also executed by pro-government forces on Monday, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Business Insider.

Reports initially indicated that the medical center staff had been executed as well, but they managed to escape in time.

Assad's forces were also using forced conscription to take over and clear areas of the besieged half of the city. Images circulated by pro-government sources on Monday showed Syrian men and boys from east Aleppo standing in front of government forces inside a detention camp.

An estimated 100,000 people are still trapped in a "hellish corner" of less than one mile of territory in eastern Aleppo that hasn't yet fallen to government forces, said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations' human-rights office. He said in a press conference that the UN had received reports of pro-government forces killing least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, in four different neighborhoods.

Civilians trying to flee their homes were also being shot in the street by pro-Assad forces, said Laerke, the UN humanitarian spokesman.

"We're seeing the most cruel form of savagery in Aleppo, and the regime and its supporters are responsible for this," Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said in a press conference from Ankara. "The wounded are not being let out, and people are dying of starvation."

A nurse living in eastern Aleppo told The New York Times that some rebels, too, had threatened those trying to flee the city.

"Why do you want to go to those who are bombing you?" the nurse said one fighter asked her family as they were trying to flee to government-held territory.

"We are dead either way," one civilian replied.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that "tales" of hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Aleppo were "Russophobic chatter" and that any civilians remaining in the city were being used by rebels as human shields.

The operation to take Aleppo back from the rebels was "successful and humane in every sense in regard to civilians," the Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

But Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force and political director of the nonprofit, pro-opposition organization United for a Free Syria, said that "horrendous war crimes" were being perpetrated against civilians as neighborhoods fell, one by one, to regime troops.

"And it's all being done with Russian aerial cover, including cluster bombs and barrel bombs," he told Business Insider on Monday.

"Aleppo will fall," he added. "I don't understand how it lasted this long. I just fear for the men, women, and children who will be slaughtered in the process."

Moustafa said he had received reports that the regime was also using chemical weapons, such as chlorine and white phosphorus, to clear the rebel-held areas. Those reports are unconfirmed.

"We are people, are being deleted from the human map,"Malek, an activist inside Aleppo, told The New York Times. "We have two neighborhoods and one street, and the regime will keep bombing this small area."

The US was shut out of the new round of negotiations hosted in Ankara, two sources close to the opposition have told Business Insider.

The talks were initially aimed at securing a deal to deliver humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo in exchange for the evacuation of extremists groups like the former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Separate negotiations between Russia and the US were apparently underway simultaneously to evacuate rebel groups from Aleppo, allowing civilians to stay and receive humanitarian aid.

The rebels proposed instead that civilians be evacuated from the city.

Arizona Senator John McCain and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham released a joint statement on Tuesday saying that news of a cease-fire deal in Aleppo was "not a cause to celebrate, but a sure sign of the fate that awaits other Syrian cities."

"Having consolidated its power in Aleppo and paid no price for its war crimes, the Assad regime will use the ceasefire to reset its war machine and prepare to slaughter its way to victory across the rest of the country," the statement read.

"It is heartbreaking that we've reached this point," it continued. "The cold logic of mass graves confronts us yet again, and the name Aleppo will echo through history, like Srebrenica and Rwanda, as a testament to our moral failure and everlasting shame."

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BRUSSELS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The European Union will not pay towards rebuilding post-war Syria if Moscow and Damascus leave no space in the future for opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's government, according to a draft joint statement from the EU's 28 leaders.

For weeks, Syrian, Russian and Iranian firepower has pounded rebels - including those backed by the West and Turkey - in what was their main urban stronghold of Aleppo. On Tuesday, thousands of people fled the city with rebel defeat seemingly imminent.

Establishing full control over Aleppo would mark government forces' biggest battlefield victory yet in the conflict that has raged for nearly six years, killing more than 300,000 people.

But, even if the rebels are defeated, the EU says no peace can hold in Syria as Damascus would face years of guerrilla warfare and the country could fall apart if power is not decentralised or devolved to give the opposition a role.

"The EU will provide support for Syria's reconstruction only once a credible political transition is firmly under way," the EU leaders will say on Thursday, according to the statement prepared for their meeting in Brussels and seen by Reuters.

The bloc's top diplomat Federica Mogherini has been delivering this message to Middle Eastern regional players - some of which are waging proxy wars in Syria - for several weeks, sources say.

The EU has already signalled it would press for more sanctions on Damascus but is not ready to impose any on Russia.

"The EU would normally have a key role in reconstruction. But if they create this monster there, we just won't pay for it. It'll be their responsibility," one EU official said, referring to Damascus, Moscow and their allies in the war.

Encouraged by November's U.S. presidential election victory by Donald Trump, who has vowed to improve Washington's ties with Moscow, the Kremlin has intensified its campaign in Syria.

An internal document prepared by Mogherini's service, which was also seen by Reuters, informing her contacts with top officials from Qatar, to Iran to Turkey of the same message: that Assad critics must have a role in the future of Syria.

Its stipulations include an "inclusive" political system to ensure "broad social and political representation". (Editing by Louise Ireland)

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East Aleppo, Syria - We are all praying for rain. When it rains, the planes can't fly and the bombardment stops for a short while.

We are hoping that it rains long enough for the powers of the world to do something to help the 150,000 civilians stuck in this small neighbourhood in Aleppo escape the carnage.

The situation here is desperate.

People seeking refuge are flooding into the area, cramming into about 10 square kilometres. There are many babies and children here too. People come with three or four children in tow, fleeing the government forces. They use their pushchairs to carry children, and whatever other belongings they can - some clothes, a few cooking utensils in plastic bags, essentials.

I chose to come to Aleppo several weeks ago. I thought I'd be here with my two-person crew for a few days. I didn't intend to be here this long. But I knew that coming here at all could be risky. Reporting from conflict zones is dangerous, but getting the truth to the world is important. Most of the other people here, however, had no choice. They are just caught up in this nightmare against their will.

It is extremely cold. The place where I am staying has no proper walls - I have hung plastic sheets and a blanket in the large holes made by a recent air strike.

The big-hearted Syrian people treat me - a journalist and the only black American in town - generously. They know I can communicate their stories to the world only when they allow me to charge my phone and laptop in one of the few remaining places with a generator and fuel.

The price of the little food that is left is not too high, as people don't want to take advantage of each other, but there is not much to sell, and everyone is suffering.

'The air strikes are relentless'

In order to cook, people take broken bits of furniture, a brick and a few stones, place their pot on top of it and then light a fire. 

The menu is limited: bread, dates, and bulgur wheat, referred to here as "poor man's rice". Some charities stockpiled the bulgur but there is not nearly enough. Most people have no access to fresh water.

Even the cooking needs to be done in hiding, out of fear of attracting government planes, or those who are hungry and have no food of their own.

The air strikes are relentless. They operate using a "double tap" method that is designed to kill any Good Samaritans who come to the aid of the injured. They strike once then wait a while; then, when people gather to try to remove those stuck under the rubble, they strike again.

At night, the streets are empty. Low-flying aircraft and their cannons hover around the town, targeting anything that moves. If you must go outside, you listen carefully and wait until they pass before running for your life from one block to another, crouching in the shadows. 

It is hardest for the injured. All of the hospitals in eastern Aleppo have been heavily bombed and as of two weeks ago, there are no longer any functioning. All that exists now are pop-up clinics in underground locations.

Getting to these clinics is difficult. The courageous White Helmets are no longer functioning; their ambulances cannot run without fuel or fear of being targeted. Some people risk bringing the injured to clinics in cars or pick-up trucks, if they have a few drops of fuel left. I have even seen people use wheelbarrows to transport severely injured loved ones.

If you make it to one of these "clinics", a new kind of nightmare awaits you there - they are crammed with people, lying on the floor in pools of blood. There is so much blood that the doctors and nurses wear boots as they slip from one patient to the next.

These clinics cannot offer anything beyond emergency medical treatment, suturing wounds and trying to carry out emergency operations. Their only aim is to stop the bleeding; they can do no more than that. And the moment the doctor is able to stop the bleeding, the victim must leave. The clinics are dangerous places. The more human beings there are assembled in one place, the more likely that place is to be targeted.

'Tomorrow will be too late for many of us' 

The Syrian government opened a corridor for people to turn themselves in. Perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 did hand themselves over. But people are still flooding into our remaining enclave as the government pushes forward. Local civilians prefer to face bombs and harsh conditions rather than disappearance.

The fact that the Syrian army has already killed half a million of their own people is a big deterrent. But now we hear reports of hundreds of men disappearing in one place, and of men being lined up for summary execution in another. It only adds to the fear of turning yourself over.

It is desperate now. The rain will stop soon and the slaughter will begin again. There must be a humanitarian corridor now. Today. Tomorrow will be too late for many of us.

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