Syrian army, Iraqi militia shooting Aleppo civilians on the spot - UN

Syrian pro-government forces have been forcefully entering homes in eastern Aleppo and killing those inside, including women and children, the United Nations has said.

The UN said on Tuesday it had reports that Syrian government troops and allied Iraqi militias had killed civilians in eastern Aleppo, including 82 people in four different neighbourhoods in the last few days.

The UN's human rights office said it had reliable evidence that in four areas 82 civilians were shot on sight.

"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 neighbourhoods - Bustan al-Qasr, al-Fardous, Al-Kalasah and al-Saliheen," Colville told a news briefing, naming the Iraqi armed group Harakat al-Nujaba as reportedly involved in the killings.

"The reports we had are of people being shot in the street trying to flee and shot in their homes," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office said. "There could be many more".

Colville said he feared retribution against thousands of civilians believed to be holed up in a "hellish corner" of less than a square kilometre of opposition-held areas. Its capture was imminent, he said.

On Tuesday a Syrian military source said that the Syrian army and its allies have taken full control over all the Aleppo districts abandoned by rebels during their retreat in the city.

Thousands of people are reportedly trapped in the last remaining neighbourhoods still in rebel hands, facing intense bombardment as pro-government troops advance.

The rebels, who have held east Aleppo for four years, are on the brink of defeat.

"The only way to alleviate the deep foreboding and suspicion that massive crimes may be under way both within Aleppo, and in relation to some of those who fled or were captured, whether fighters or civilians, is for there to be monitoring by external bodies, such as the UN," Colville said.

France on Tuesday called on the United Nations to use all its mechanisms to determine what was happening in Aleppo, warning Russia that it risked being complicit in acts of "vengeance and terror" taking place in the Syrian city.

Russia, which has rejected calls for a humanitarian truce, earlier said any atrocities were "actually being committed by terrorist groups", meaning rebel forces.

Jens Laerke, UN humanitarian spokesman described the situation as "a complete meltdown of humanity in Aleppo".

Unverified reports of extrajudicial killings by forces loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as well as mass detentions and arrests, have surfaced in recent days. In one image circulated by a pro-government parliamentarian, dozens of Syrian men and boys from east Aleppo stand in a detention camp in front of Syrian army soldiers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were corpses abandoned in the streets with residents too terrified by the shelling to bury them. “Real massacres” were taking place in the city, the war monitor said.