More east Aleppo districts taken by government forces

A Syrian war monitoring group says government forces have captured large parts of Aleppo’s central-eastern al-Shaar neighborhood from rebels. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government forces took most of the once-populous neighborhood on Tuesday, following intense clashes. The SANA state news agency said the government captured the entire neighborhood as well as the neighborhoods of al-Qatarji and Karm al-Dada. The neighborhood was home to four hospitals available to residents trapped by the government’s siege of the eastern part of the city.