Syria says it seized almost 75 percent of eastern Aleppo

In what appears to be the final days of the rebellion in Aleppo, the rebels, including groups that have received US support to fight Assad, say they have been abandoned to their fate by states that have backed the opposition to Assad.

Syria’s government refers to all opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as “terrorists”.

“Diplomacy has not delivered for the people of Aleppo, that’s for sure”, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview.

However, Reuters reporters in a government-held part of the city said bombardment could still be heard after his remarks were published. The Syrian government has on several occasions offered rebels and their families safe passage out of Aleppo, but the rebels refused. Col. Abo Bakr, a Free Syrian Army representative present at negotiations, said a provisional deal, including a cease-fire and the withdrawal of al-Qaeda linked militants, was agreed to before talks fell apart as government troops continued their sweep through the city.

Regime forces have retaken about 80 percent of former rebel territory in Aleppo since launching an all-out offensive three weeks ago to recapture Syria’s second city.

In a statement, the Observatory said dozens of bodies littered streets stretching from al-Shaar to the southern part of eastern Aleppo, including the Old City, as a result of ongoing intense government bombardment.

The army said it had taken over areas to the east of the Old City including al-Shaar, Marja and Karm al-Qaterji, bringing them closer to cutting off another pocket of rebel control.

He said Washington had withdrawn an earlier surrender proposal and substituted it for another which “backtracks and is an attempt to buy time for the militants, allow them to catch their breath and resupply”. They called for an “immediate ceasefire” to allow aid to reach eastern Aleppo and accused Damascus and its backers, especially Russian Federation, of blocking emergency help.

A United States official stressed that the Geneva talks will be at a “technical” level, “not foreign minister level”, to discuss modalities of a possible ceasefire, aid supplies and the evacuation of civilians and rebel fighters.

The U.N. human rights office said it believed some 100,000 civilians were still in the rebel-held enclave.

The government’s rapid gains have left opposition fighters scrambling to defend the shrinking enclave they still control in Aleppo’s southeastern districts.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said a Russian colonel who worked as a military adviser in the government-controlled part of Aleppo has died in rebel shelling.

A military source said troops were “advancing in that direction”. The people had been trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly and included mentally and physically disabled patients, as well as injured civilians who had sought refuge there.

Many Western countries cut ties with Damascus in 2011 and have imposed crippling economic sanctions, but Assad said he remained open to better relations with them. “I feel reborn”, said Yasser, 40, a father of eight.

“It is the most important neighbourhood in the heart of east Aleppo, and is on the brink of falling”, Syrian Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency, adding that regime forces were already in control of a third of the district. “The same could be said for the evacuation or the voluntary evacuation of fighters if there was an arrangement on that”.

However, in his first public comments since the Aleppo offensive began in mid-November, he also cautioned that retaking Aleppo did not in itself mean an end to the bloody conflict.