Aleppo rebels unite as Syrian regime tears through city
Aleppo, Syria - Syrian regime forces have shelled rebel-held Aleppo for the past 24 hours straight, gaining more ground in a bloody bid to seize control of the whole city.
Airstrikes and mortar rounds have pounded rebel positions in eastern Aleppo non-stop, said CNN Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen on the ground, reducing more buildings to rubble in a city already decimated in parts.
Aleppo had been divided between the government-held west and rebel-held east for more than four years, but regime forces have gained control of about half of the eastern district in the eight days since they entered the area.
"Indiscriminate shelling by air and artillery and mortars ... are reaching every neighborhood and almost every house and building. There is no distinction between civilians and rebel fighters," an activist from the Aleppo Media Center told CNN on Sunday.
Syrians fleeing from eastern Aleppo line up to board government buses on Tuesday.
Around 30,000 people have fled eastern Aleppo neighborhoods since forces broke through rebel defense walls, many into the government-controlled west and Kurdish-held areas.
At an old cotton factory in the town of Jibreen, CNN witnessed displaced people lining up for food -- for many, the first hot meal they've had in months. Their beds are flimsy mattresses on a dirty floor, and as temperatures drop, they rely on campfires for warmth.
The US and Russia have been at loggerheads over how to deal with the conflict -- Russia backs the Syrian regime with air power and supports its stance on considering all rebel groups as targets. The US has armed some of those very groups to fight ISIS in the country and considers them a moderate opposition.
The old Cold War enemies have blamed each other in several UN Security Council meetings on Syria, during which Russia has used its veto power as a permanent member to shoot down resolutions on the conflict.
Syrian children are among the many displaced by the operation to retake eastern Aleppo.
But on Saturday, the two powers appeared to have made rare progress.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with other ministers in Rome and said that US Secretary of State John Kerry had "turned in American proposals in line with proposals defended for a long time by our experts," Russian state media Sputnik reported.
"We are ready to immediately send our military experts and diplomats to Geneva to agree with American colleagues," Lavrov said, adding that Moscow and Washington were now in agreement that "all militants without exception" would leave eastern Aleppo.
A Syrian soldier on Monday drives a tank through an area of eastern Aleppo recently seized by the regime.
This would allow non-interrupted humanitarian deliveries to civilians, he said.
Kerry echoed the comments in a rare show of unity between the two nations.
"Hopefully, if the humanitarian situation can be dealt with more effectively, and if indeed we can create a framework for the passage of people out of Aleppo so that Aleppo itself might be able to be relieved from this agony, that could open up the space to perhaps be able to start some kind of conversation in Geneva," Kerry told reporters.
But the small glimmer of hope appeared shattered when rebel groups told the US they refused to leave, Reuters reported.
Senior rebel official Zakaria Malahifji said the message was delivered to US officials on Saturday following the statement from Russia.
"Our response to the Americans was as follows: We cannot leave our city, our homes, to the mercenary militias that the regime has mobilized in Aleppo," said Malahifji, the head of the political office of an Aleppo rebel group.
