Syrian monitor: Syrian army advance in key Aleppo district

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces seized the strategic eastern Aleppo district of al-Sakhour on Monday in a wider advance that has driven opposition from a third of the opposition-held area in recent days.

Opposition sources could not immediately be reached for comment about the report that confirmed an earlier report by the Syrian military.

"It is the biggest defeat for the opposition in Aleppo since 2012," Rami Abdulrahman, Director of the Observatory, told Reuters. "The opposition has lost more than third of the area it controlled in Aleppo city during the big advance," he said.