Rebel-held parts of Aleppo ‘totally besieged’

A wounded Syrian is evacuated after he was rescued from under the rubble of a collapsed building following airstrikes in the rebel-controlled neighbourhood of Maysar in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo: AFP)

Opposition-controlled parts of Syria’s battered northern city of Aleppo came under total siege on Sunday, after government forces severed the last route out of the east.

An estimated 300,000 civilians live in rebel-held neighbourhoods of Syria’s second city, the UN said, and there are fears that they could face starvation.

The rebels have failed to thwart a major Russian-backed Army offensive around Aleppo, which has been devastated by Syria’s five-year conflict.

On Sunday, regime fighters descended on the Castello Road and fully cut it, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The eastern neighbourhoods are now completely besieged,” he said.

The Observatory also reported that five civilians were killed Sunday in regime airstrikes on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al-Maysar while 16 rebel fighters died in the regime advance on Aleppo.

The city is divided roughly between government control in the west and rebel control in the east.

The Castello Road had been used by rebels but also by shopkeepers bringing in produce for residents and by villagers visiting relatives in the city.

“Aleppo is now 100 per cent besieged,” one rebel from the Aleppo Revolutionaries group said.

He said the Army had reached the road and was setting up sandbag barriers.

Facebook pages run by Aleppo-based activists urged civilians to stay away from the route to avoid being arrested or wounded.

Sieges by both the regime and its opponents have had a devastating impact on other areas of Syria, including the town of Madaya where aid groups say dozens of people have died from starvation and malnutrition.

The United Nations said that nearly 600,000 people are living under siege in Syria, most of them surrounded by government forces.

Eastern Aleppo has not been designated by the UN as besieged.