World

16000 flee Aleppo, United Nations calls situation ‘chilling’

Up to 16,000 civilians have fled strife-torn parts of eastern Aleppo as the rebels lost all of the northern neighbourhoods of their stronghold, the UN said on Tuesday, describing the situation as “chilling”. “The intensity of attacks on eastern Aleppo neighbourhoods over the past few days has forced thousands of civilians to flee to other parts of the city,” UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said in a statement.

He pointed to reports from the UN’s humanitarian partners on the ground indicating that “up to 16,000 people have been displaced, many into uncertain and precarious situations”.
Overnight, at least 18 people were killed in government air strikes on the remaining rebel-held areas, including 12 in the Shaar district near the new northern frontline, according to a UK-based monitoring group.

Another 10 died in an air strike in the Bab al-Nairab area on Tuesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.

An opposition activist network said a group of displaced civilians had been targeted and it put the death toll at 25.
Aleppo was 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, with the government controlling the west and rebels the east.

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