CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: PROF. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

World / Middle East

More than 10,000 flee rebel-held Aleppo since midnight: monitor

Published: 11 Dec 2016 - 10:55 am | Last Updated: 05 Nov 2021 - 03:59 am
A man carries food as he walks along a street in a rebel-held besieged area of Aleppo, Syria December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

A man carries food as he walks along a street in a rebel-held besieged area of Aleppo, Syria December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

AFP

Beirut: Fierce fighting and heavy bombardment saw more than 10,000 people flee rebel-held areas of the battleground Syrian city of Aleppo since midnight, a monitoring group said on Sunday.

"They fled towards government-held areas in west Aleppo and districts newly controlled by regime forces in the north and centre of the city," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A resident in the city's southeast told AFP that he saw large crowds of people fleeing during the night towards regime-held districts in west Aleppo.

According to the Observatory, fighting raged on several fronts between rebels and regime forces in southeast Aleppo, while regime raids and artillery fire continued to pound rebel-held areas.

An AFP correspondent in west Aleppo said that heavy bombardment of the east was heard through the night, and that it was so intense that it rattled windows in western districts.