Aleppo siege: Third of rebel-held Syria city taken by forces

SYRIAN government forces have captured more than a third of rebel-held territory in eastern Aleppo.
The advance, after heavy bombing from the air, is a major blow for the armed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
State TV said government troops were dismantling mines and explosives and continuing their advance.
Thousands of civilians have fled the besieged districts after a weekend of heavy fighting. Hundreds of families have been displaced within the area.
BBC revealed that rebel fighters have been driven out of more neighbourhoods of their long-held enclave in eastern Aleppo, as Syrian government forces continue to advance.
After further fighting on Monday, the rebels are reported to have lost all of the northern neighbourhoods they controlled before the weekend, leaving them with under two-thirds of the territory they had in the city.
Two rebel officials told Reuters their forces had withdrawn to a more defendable front line after government advances risked splitting the rebel-held area in two.
Syrian government troops now control the section of east Aleppo north of the Sakhour highway, according to monitors.
Russia’s defence ministry says Syrian government troops have captured 12 districts, or 40 per cent of the territory, from the rebels.
Aerial bombardment of rebel-held areas was continuing on Monday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian army and its allies launched a major offensive to retake control of Aleppo in September.
Thousands of residents of east Aleppo have fled to areas controlled by government forces and Kurdish groups since the fighting intensified on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said as many as 10,000 residents fled to government-controlled western areas and a Kurdish-run northern district.
State media showed men, women and children being transported to government-held areas on green buses.
Kurdish groups who control the Sheikh Maqsoud area of Aleppo provided images showing people fleeing the rebel-held neighbourhoods into a Kurdish-controlled district.