Several people have been killed and as many as 50 injured after a truck ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin, according to localmedia reports. They suggested the vehicle ran into the market

The scene in the streets of Berlin after a terrorist attack on a Christmas market

outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church on Monday evening. The reports cited police at the scene who said initial indications pointed to a terror attack. A photograph posted by the Morgenpost showed damaged tables and stalls, while footage posted online by the same outlet showed a truck on the scene and police officers investigating. The Berliner Zeitung said police also believed there to be multiple injuries. Both newspapers reported it was not immediately clear whether the incident was an accident or some kind of an attack on the market. Breitscheidplatz, where the market was set up, is one of Berlin’s busiest shopping areas. Please click to read the breaking story from Kevin Rawlinson of the guardian.com

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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