CENTRALBATAM.CO.ID, SYRIA –
The last of Aleppo’s rebel-held neighborhoods look set to fall to the Syrian regime, in a bloody end to the four-year battle for control of the key city.
Government forces are now in control of most of eastern Aleppo, which had been held by rebels for four years, and there are several reports of mass executions. Activists say anyone with links to the rebels who seized control of the enclave in 2012 is being hunted down.
“Every hour, butcheries are carried out,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding evidence to earlier reports from the United Nations of atrocities against a large number of civilians.
The UN said Tuesday it had received reports that 82 civilians had been shot on sight by pro-government forces on Monday, many killed in their homes.
A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he had received “deeply disturbing reports” that bodies were lying in the streets in the city — and that residents were unable to retrieve them in intense bombardment and out of “fear of being shot on sight.”
“In all, as of yesterday evening, we have received reports of pro-government forces killing at least 82 civilians in four different neighborhoods — Bustan al-Qasr, al-Ferdous, al-Kallaseh, and al-Saleheen,” the spokesman, Rupert Colville, said at a press conference
