Army says battle for Aleppo in ‘final phase’
Aleppo : The crucial battle for Aleppo entered what the army called its "final phase" on Monday after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces held more than 90 percent of the onetime opposition stronghold of east Aleppo, a monitor and military official said, and appeared on the verge of retaking the entire city.
An estimated 130,000 people have poured out of east Aleppo since late November, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The monitor said on Monday that 10,000 of those had fled rebel areas in the previous 24 hours.
The government assault on Aleppo has killed at least 415 civilians since it began in mid-November, according to the Observatory.
Another 130 civilians have been killed by rebel fire into the city's west over the same period, it says.
The fall of Aleppo would be the worst rebel defeat since Syria's conflict began in 2011, and leave the government in control of the country's five major cities.
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