According to Tasnim dispatches, the army troops on Sunday tightened the noose around Takfiri militants in Aleppo and managed to wrest control of al-Aseelah neighborhood.

The government forces are now advancing toward Bab al-Maqam and Bab al-Nairab neighborhoods, the report added.

The Syrian military, which is in control of the western part of the city, has been fighting to wrest back its militant-held east. 

According to a statement by Russian Defense Ministry official Sergei Rudskoi on Friday, Syrian army ground forces and allies liberated 52 blocks in the eastern parts of Aleppo from the grip of foreign-backed militants and are now in control of 93 percent of the whole northwestern city.

He said that as many as 10,500 people have left eastern Aleppo in the last 24 hours, adding that the city’s residents have reported torture and public executions by the so-called moderate militants backed by the US and its allies.

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh, currently controlling parts of it.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.