ALEPPO, SYRIA - DECEMBER 04: Search and rescue team members work at site after warcrafts belonging to Syrian army carried out airstrikes on the opposition controlled areas in Aleppo's Sukkeri region, Syria on December 4, 2016. ( Ibrahim Ebu Leys - Anadolu
Aleppo, Syria: Syria's army gained ground in the battle for Aleppo on Monday, as regime ally Russia said it would hold talks with Washington on a total rebel withdrawal from the city.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces have seized two-thirds of the former rebel bastion in east Aleppo since they began an operation to recapture all of Syria's battered second city in mid-November.
The rapid gains for regime forces have left opposition fighters reeling and on Monday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said talks would be held with Washington on a complete rebel evacuation from the city.
"During the Russian-American consultations the concrete route and timeframe for the withdrawal of all fighters from eastern Aleppo will be agreed upon," Lavrov said, adding that the discussions in Geneva would likely start on Tuesday or Wednesday.
"As soon as these routes and timeframes are agreed on, a ceasefire can come into effect," Lavrov said.
The loss of Aleppo would mark the biggest defeat yet for opposition forces in Syria's five-year civil war.
The assault has raised an international outcry and the UN Security Council was due to vote later Wednesday on a draft resolution for a seven-day ceasefire in the city.
But Lavrov appeared to torpedo that move, suggesting Moscow might use its veto to block the resolution.
"The draft resolution... is, for the most part, a provocative step that undermines Russian-American efforts," he told a press conference.
Russia is a staunch ally of Syria's government, and began a military intervention in support of Damascus in September 2015.
It says it is not involved in the current offensive in Aleppo, which has seen the army advance quickly as it pounds the east with air strikes, barrel bombs and artillery fire.
- Sleepless night -
Overnight, the army and allied forces seized the Qadi Askar neighbourhood and effectively encircled the large Shaar district, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the army was attacking both from inside east Aleppo and from government-held western districts.
"The regime is draining the rebel fighters of ammunition by opening many fronts at the same time," he said.
Terrified residents spent a sleepless night in rebel-held neighbourhoods, as dozens of rockets rained down, AFP's correspondent in east Aleppo said.
Many switched off all their lights, even turning off generators, because they were attracting bombardment.
Residents were going into basements or cowering in the entrances of buildings in the hope of remaining safe.
Tens of thousands of east Aleppo residents have fled to other parts of the city during the fighting.
The Observatory says at least 324 people have been killed in east Aleppo during the offensive, including 44 children.
Rebel fire on the government-held west of the city has killed 73 people, including 29 children, in the same period, the monitor says.
The assault has added to the misery in east Aleppo, which has been targeted by relentless government fire since it fell to rebels in 2012.
The city's east was surrounded by government forces in mid-July, and no aid has entered the area since.
International aid provisions have been exhausted and other food supplies are dwindling, meaning many residents are surviving on a single meal a day.
- Homes in ruins -
Hundreds of Syrians have been returning to recaptured east Aleppo districts in recent days, some years after they left, only to find their homes in ruins.
Kafa Jawish, 36, burst into tears as she saw her home for the first time in four years, reduced to little more than rubble.
"We were so optimistic... but now we've found it like this, uninhabitable," she said.
"There's nothing in it and the house is destroyed. Oh God."
Violence has continued elsewhere in the country alongside the Aleppo fighting, with at least 72 people killed in air strikes and barrel bomb attacks across the northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday, the Observatory said.
Most of those killed died in air strikes on the towns of Maaret al-Numan and Kafr Nabal, the monitor said, adding that those strikes appeared to have been carried out by Russia.
The Observatory says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
Moscow has dismissed reports of civilian casualties in its strikes.
Last month it said it was beginning a "major operation" in Idlib and central Homs province.
Russia's defence ministry on Monday said a Sukhoi jet attempting a landing on its Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier off the Syrian coast crashed after rolling off the deck, adding the pilot was unharmed.
It was the second Russian warplane to crash in a month.
