An AFP correspondent in rebel-held eastern districts also reported sounds of fighting and artillery fire. “Members of popular civil committees from regime districts entered the eastern neighbourhoods to try to evacuate the injured but failed,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said earlier Saturday. The UN had drawn up a four-day plan that was to start with two days of medical evacuations to west Aleppo, rebel-held Idlib province, and Turkey, and continue with more evacuations as well as aid deliveries. The Observatory said earlier both rebels and regime forces appeared to be reinforcing their positions. Elsewhere in Aleppo province, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels were shelling the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces coalition in several villages.

Source: The Hindu October 23, 2016 04:30 UTC