Rebels lose 60% of territory in Aleppo

Close to two-thirds of the rebel-held areas of east Aleppo have fallen to the Syrian government after another district was seized.

Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and allied forces advanced overnight, seizing Aleppo's Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood from rebels as they press an offensive to recapture all of the city, a monitor said on Saturday.

The capture of the neighbourhood means the government has now retaken around 60 percent of the east of the city, which the rebels overran in mid-2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Swathes of east Aleppo held by rebels have been seized by government troops and militiamen in the past three weeks.

Some 250,000 people remain trapped in besieged areas of the city.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. The United Nations this week said conditions in east Aleppo were now so dire that medical operations were being conducted without anaesthetics.

The advance also restores control of a road leading from government-controlled western neighbourhoods of the city to Aleppo airport, which the regime also holds.

The government's capture of Tariq al-Bab came after ferocious clashes that sent civilians flooding out of the adjacent neighbourhood of Al-Shaar.

Earlier this week, Stephen O'Brien, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief, said besieged areas of the city risked becoming "one giant graveyard".

He said some people inside opposition-controlled areas were so hungry they were reduced to scavenging.

On Thursday, Russia, that supports President Bashar al-Assad's government, indicated it was ready to discuss opening four safe corridors for humanitarian access.

Aleppo was once Syria's largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.

It has been divided in roughly two for the past four years. But in the past 11 months, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes.

In early September they reinstated a siege of the east, and launched a large-scale offensive later that month to retake full control of the city.

The Syrian Observatory says more than 300 civilians have been killed in rebel-held districts since the offensive was stepped up in mid-November.