\n A leading Syrian opposition body on Wednesday demanded the United Nations act immediately to protect residents of Aleppo, battered by advancing regime forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n The opposition National Coalition urged the UN Security Council in a letter to \"take immediate, definitive steps to protect civilians in Aleppo and stop the barbaric offensive against them.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Syrian regime forces are pressing a major assault in the divided city, seeking to recapture eastern districts that have served as a key rebel stronghold since 2012.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tens of thousands of residents have poured out of the rebel-held east to areas controlled by the government or local Kurdish authorities.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 250,000 people had been living in the eastern neighbourhoods under a four-month government siege.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The regime of (Bashar al-) Assad and its allies have turned the liberated areas of Aleppo into a coffin,\" National Coalition chief Anas al-Abdeh wrote in the letter.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This escalation is a war crime and a crime against humanity, another item on the Assad regime's long, bloody, barbaric list,\" Abdeh said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Regime forces and allied fighters have seized a third of the rebel-held east of Aleppo since they began an operation to recapture all of the battered second city just over a fortnight ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n They now fully control the city's northeast and pressed their offensive Wednesday on Aleppo's southeastern edges, advancing in the Sheikh Saeed district, according to state news agency SANA.\n<\/p>\n
\n The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest blow for Syria's opposition since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, before spiralling into a civil war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A leading Syrian opposition body on Wednesday demanded the United Nations act immediately to protect residents of Aleppo, battered by advancing regime forces. The opposition National Coalition urged the UN Security Council in a letter to \"take immediate, definitive steps to protect civilians in Aleppo and stop the barbaric offensive against them.\" Syrian regime forces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-30842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n