THE SIEGE OF ALEPPO: Syria rebels ‘withdraw from old city’

Activist monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pull-back in Syria’s second city came after days of heavy fighting.

State media confirmed the military had taken over the whole of the old city.

Government forces now control about 75% of eastern Aleppo, held by the rebels for the past four years.

The rebels, who had been left with just a spit of land north-east of the citadel after recent government advances, abandoned it by Wednesday morning, retreating to territory they still hold further south.

The SOHR said remaining rebel-held areas in the south-east of the city came under heavy artillery fire overnight.

The only thing as ugly as the Syrian Civil War will be the reprisals once it’s over.