Syrian forces push Aleppo rebels to brink as city nears 'total collapse'

This International Committee for the Red Cross image shows Syrians who were displaced with their families from eastern Aleppo in the village of Jibreen. Photo / AP

Syrian forces in the city of Aleppo pinned rebels into a tiny sliver of territory today as President Bashar al-Assad's troops appeared close to capturing their biggest battlefield prize and delivering a crushing loss to opposition fighters.

Taking full control of Aleppo - a key northern city and one of the last urban strongholds for rebels - would not end the more than five-year conflict that has ravaged Syria and scattered millions of war refugees across the Middle East and Europe.

But Aleppo's complete fall would mark a major setback for rebel factions and leave them - and their Western and Arab allies - struggling for ways to keep the anti-Assad rebellion alive.

On social media, some people wondered aloud whether they were posting their final words.

"I am waiting to die or be captured by the Assad regime," wrote Ameen al-Halabi, a photographer. "Pray for me and always remember us."

Rebel officials said their forces were pulling out of district after district in the face of overwhelming force by Syrian ground troops backed by Russian air power. Rebels controlled no more than a tenth of east Aleppo neighbourhoods they had once hoped to use as a seat of power to rival the capital, Damascus.

"The battle of Aleppo has reached its end. It is just a matter of a small period of time, no more, no less . . . it's a total collapse," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said rebel forces had withdrawn from all districts on the eastern side of the Aleppo river after losing a key area, Sheikh Said, in overnight fighting.

After repeated attempts to try to take back Aleppo, a pro-government offensive has smashed rebel defenses there and left armed opposition groups ready to surrender.

Defeat of the rebels in this strategic city, once Syria's economic powerhouse, would be devastating for what remains of the broader fight against Assad's rule.

It would also hand the Government an important morale boost, a day after Isis' recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra underscored the army's deep manpower shortages.

More than 100,000 people are believed to have fled the fighting over the past two weeks, often arriving in government- or Kurdish-held areas with nothing. But those who remain in east Aleppo have said they cannot leave.

Some fear getting caught and even disappeared in the dragnet of government detentions. The United Nations has also received reports that the rebels have stopped people from leaving.

Inside what remains of rebel-held Aleppo, most residents sheltered in their houses as bombs rained down and government troops grew ever closer.

A video posted to Facebook, apparently filmed in recent days, revealed a grim snapshot. In a makeshift field hospital, blood covers the floor. Out on the street, the air is filled with smoke and flames, and in the middle of the road, a figure staggers to its feet, burning.