Rebels in Syria using refugees as human sheilds from fleeing Aleppo

A Syrian monitoring group has alleged that rebels are preventing dozens of families from fleeing eastern Aleppo as Russian-backed government forces intensify their bombardment of the besieged quarter. However, such claims are difficult to verify and often distorted owing to the propaganda value of the matter.

Syrian and Russian state media maintain that rebels are holding the enclave's 275,000 remaining inhabitants hostage to use as human shields, even as the government's air force pounds the east's hospitals and first responder groups. Opposition outlets on the other hand want to show that civilians will never accept returning to the government's heavy-handed rule.

Russia has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad with vast military support as he fights to put down an uprising that is approaching its sixth year. Over 300,000 people have been killed in the raging war. A resident of Aleppo's frontline Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood corroborated the report by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which maintains a network of contacts among both government and anti-government institutions. Hajj Mohammed al-Jasim told The Associated Press his uncles' families were trying to cross from the Bustan al-Basha neighbouhood in the east to the predominantly Kurdish enclave of Sheikh Maqsoud.

"They've wanted to cross for a while because the circumstances have become very difficult," said al-Jasim, who confirmed his location near the al-Riz crossing via phone location services. He said his relatives told him they were prepared to cross during the day but were advised by three rebel groups to wait until dark. "Then in the evening, (the rebels) began to fire at the crossing" to prevent passage, al-Jasim said. He said about fifty families were waiting to cross.

The autonomous Kurdish defense forces, the YPG, have promised housing in Sheikh Maqsoud to any families who cross,or secure passage on to opposition-held Azaz or Kurdish-held Afrin, two towns north of Aleppo, according to the al-Jasim. The Observatory reported 100 families are waiting tocross, while Ahmad Hiso Araj, a political official for theYPG-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces, said 250 civilians wereprepared to go. He said they were communicating with theirrelatives in Sheikh Maqsoud to evacuate Bustan al-Basha. The government has recently stepped up its bombardment ofeastern Aleppo, and by Sunday it had knocked out everyhospital in the quarter, according to the World Health Organization.

The Observatory says at least 140 civilians,including 18 children, have been killed. The UN's chief humanitarian official Stephen O'Brien said Monday the conditions had gone "from terrible to terrifyingand now barely survivable." UN humanitarian official Jan Egeland warned two weeks agothat the east was running out of food. The area has been undersiege by pro-government forces since August. The government's air assault has been accompanied bypro-government troops pushing their way into neighborhoods onthe edges of eastern Aleppo.