Mass killing reported in Aleppo as Syria troops near victory

BEIRUT (AP) — Pro-government forces reportedly killed 82

civilians “on the spot” as they closed in on the last rebel enclave in Syria’s Aleppo Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office said, while world leaders and aid agencies issued dramatic appeals on behalf of trapped residents.

Photo by: Uncredited
This image released by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) shows Syrians who were displaced with their families from eastern Aleppo gather at the collective shelter, in the village of Jibreen south of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Syria’s military said Monday it has regained control of 98 percent of eastern Aleppo, as government forces close in the last remaining sliver of a rebel enclave packed with fighters as well as tens of thousands of civilians. (ICRC via AP)

That and other reports of mass killings, which could not be independently confirmed, reinforce fears of atrocities in eastern Aleppo in the final hours of the battle for the city, which has been split between rebel and government control since 2012.

Several residents and opposition activists have told The Associated Press that government forces carried out summary killings of rebels in the streets in neighborhoods captured on Monday, but the Syrian military flatly denied the claims, saying such allegations were “a desperate attempt” to try gain international sympathy.

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