Syrian troops capture new rebel district in Aleppo: Monitor

Beirut: The Syrian army continued to advance seizing Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood of Aleppo from rebels as they press an offensive to recapture all of the city, a monitor said on Saturday. 

The capture of the neighbourhood means the government has now retaken around 60 per cent of the east of the city, which the rebels overran in mid-2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The advance also restores control of a road leading from government-controlled western neighbourhoods of the city to Aleppo airport, which the regime also holds.

The government's capture of Tariq al-Bab came after ferocious clashes that sent civilians flooding out of the adjacent neighbourhood of Al-Shaar.

More than 300 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo since the government resumed its offensive to oust the rebels on November 15.