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Syrian Military Calls on Aleppo Rebels to Surrender

Most were killed inside the city.

East Aleppo came under siege in early July after its main supply route, the Castello Road, fell under government control.global attempts to establish ceasefires to allow in United Nations humanitarian aid have failed, although other aid groups have brought in limited supplies.

If loyalist fighters seize Al Heluk, Bustan Al Basha and Sakhur - all rebel-controlled neighbourhoods in Aleppo's north - they will confine opposition factions to a small section of the city's south-east.

"Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box", MSF director of operations Xisco Villalonga said in a statement on Friday. It says the total number killed in and around the city is 406. It was thought to be well protected from potential attacks due to its location.

"What is clear is that there is nothing more for the United States and Russian Federation to talk about with regard to stopping the ongoing violence in Syria and that is unfortunate", he told reporters.

On Saturday, the largest trauma and intensive care center in eastern Aleppo was badly damaged by air strikes and had to close.

At least two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital on Saturday, according to the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports the facility, in an attack fiercely condemned by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon as a "war crime".

As fighting intensifies for Aleppo - Syria's largest city - treatment for the injured there is becoming even more elusive.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed that the hospital was destroyed after "being directly targeted by air raids". Rescue workers are still searching for people under the rubble.

The attack was carried out by two suicide bombers wearing explosives-laden belts near the ruling Baath party office and a police station, Aamaq reported on Monday.

As the drums of war beat louder, following last week's ultimatum by John Kerry that the U.S. is contemplating a direct military intervention in Syria, including potentially sending USA troops on the ground in the war-torn country for the first time, on Saturday Russia warned the United States against carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, saying it would have repercussions across the Middle East. It is firmly under the control of Assad's forces.

Air strikes and shelling continued on Sunday, the Observatory said.

Today in particular, there was much controversy over an article in The Independent - a British news outlet - on the death of the young Syrian swimmer Mireille Hindoyan and her brother. The state-run Anadolu Agency said it will remain in force until October 30, 2017. It gave no further details. The province is a stronghold of the Islamic State militant group. US officials say the bombings are indiscriminate and that the Russians make no effort to limit their targets to Islamic State fighters.

Shaqif was under rebel control for over four years.

With many basic medications now unavailable most supplies are running short, patients are being turned away from health centres and the need for evacuations is likely "to rise dramatically in the coming days", O'Brien said.

"A new barrel bomb fell this afternoon in front of the hospital, forcing medical staff... to evacuate all patients to another one and leave the hospital", a doctor at M10 told AFP.

The assault has levelled apartment blocks and put hospitals out of service, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in opposition areas besieged for most of the past two months.

UOSSM said there were minor injuries from the attack. The SANA news agency said forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad had recaptured al-Kindi Hospital and strategic hills on the northern outskirts of Aleppo.

"Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments", Kirby said, "and was also either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed". Clashes were also reported in the town of Yadouda in the countryside of Dara'a.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby briefs reporters on August 18, 2016.

Turkey sent troops and tanks into Syria in August to help Syrian rebels re-take IS strongholds near the border and curb the advance of Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara accuses of links with Turkey's outlawed Kurdish rebels.

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Syrian Military Calls on Aleppo Rebels to Surrender