Russia said it would hold talks with Washington Tuesday on a total rebel withdrawal from Syria's Aleppo, where the army has made sweeping advances, but opposition factions have rejected any evacuation.
Among the most well-known evacuations was the 2014 exit of rebels from the Old City of Homs after a two-year government siege.
The U.N.'s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in October put the number at 8,000 rebels, saying around 900 of them belonged to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate previously known as the Nusra Front.
The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest defeat yet for opposition forces in Syria's 5-1/2-year civil war.
On the ground in the east, Syrian troops battled rebels in the Shaar district, which the army has almost completely encircled after advancing overnight.
The Observatory says at least 324 people have been killed in east Aleppo during the offensive, including 44 children.
Rebel fire into the government-held west of the city has killed 73 people, including 29 children, in the same period, according to the Observatory.
...