A Syrian Army commander told Al Masdar's Arabic-language service that the countdown has started to the beginning of the army offensive to win back the Southern districts of East Aleppo from the militant groups.

The high-ranking Syrian Army official who demanded anonymity further said that the operation to liberate the Southern districts would start with simultaneous attacks from nine directions, the same strategy that was employed by the Syrian army to drive back militants from the Northern neighborhoods of the battleground city's East.

The military official also revealed that Syrian army forces have started deployment of equipment and fresh forces to launch the imminent large-scale offensive on the terrorists, while the Syrian Army's allies have stationed in several positions in and around the city to help liberate the remaining districts still under the grip of militant groups.

The reports on the upcoming operation in the Southern districts of Eastern Aleppo come as the Syrian army liberated 16 districts in Eastern Aleppo populated by 90,000 residents during a three-day operation.

Head of operations in the Russian General Staff General Sergey Rudskoy told Sputnik that over 18,000 civilians left terrorist-controlled areas of Aleppo as a result of the Syrian army's successful operation.

As a result of the the Syrian army's successful advance, the militants' system of battle positions has been broken. More than 18 thousand civilians were able to leave areas controlled by terrorists of Aleppo," Rudskoy said.

Over 1,000 settlements have joined the Syrian ceasefire regime, more than 100,000 residents have returned their home in the areas that have joined the ceasefire regime.

Russian jets have not conducted airstrikes in Aleppo since October 18, the General Staff said. Moreover, Russia has sent a demining squad to Aleppo.

The Syrian army's recent victories in Eastern Aleppo were secured after it started special operations in Aleppo after several humanitarian pauses declared by Damascus and Moscow to give a chance to the civilian population as well as the militants to leave the Eastern parts of the city through 8 corridors, and eventually managed to win full control over the Northern flank of the Aleppo city's Eastern districts.

The army units have taken back 25 square kilometers of the total 45 square kilometers of Eastern Aleppo after recapturing several regions, and now, with recapturing the Northern part of Eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syrian army forces have turned their attention to the last half of the East Aleppo pocket.

Thousands of civilians, including hundreds of children and newborn babies, have also left the Eastern part of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in recent days.

Meanwhile, terrorist commanders stationed in the Eastern parts of Aleppo have threatened Abdullah Muhammad al-Muhaysini, a senior al Qaeda-linked cleric and the religious leader of Jeish al-Fatah coalition of terrorist groups, that they will be forced to give up fight and surrender the city to the army in the next two days if not rescued from outside.

A military source said on Wednesday that the terrorists in Aleppo will finally be forced to agree with the government's plan to transfer the militants to Idlib similar to their comrades in Homs and Damascus.

The Lebanese al-Safir newspaper reported that the terrorists in Aleppo are under the Syrian army's tight noose and have no option but surrendering given the field situation.

The paper referred to heavy attacks launched by the Syrian army against the terrorists in different parts of Aleppo, and wrote it seems that the era of terrorist groups is ending in Aleppo.

Local sources in Eastern Aleppo have also reported that the terrorists have lost confidence in their commanders after their repeated unfulfilled promises on breaking the army's siege and their morale has weakened after heavy defeats and sustaining abundant casualties and damages.

After continued defeats and nearly two months of insistence on remaining in the city and rejecting the army's several chances to leave Eastern Aleppo with their weapons, terrorists are now facing the realities of war as their comrades' massive attacks on the city to break the army's several-month-long siege have all ended up in fiasco.

The Russian Defense Ministry's Peace Cooperation Center in Syria has said that infighting between terrorist groups in Aleppo has intensified as militants are trying to prevent other comrades from leaving the Syrian city.

Clashes between militant groups have intensified because some militants, who are controlling Eastern Aleppo, wanted to leave the city but were encountered by the most hardline groups," the center's statement added.

The military analysts and field sources had told al-Watan daily that battle field information after the Syrian army and its allies' massive attacks in Aleppo show that "the terrorists will soon be forced to surrender and their positions will fall one after another since they have lost a large number of their commanders and members as well as arms caches and can no more resist against the Syrian troops' offensives; this is while their regional allies have also withdrawn their support for them".

"Meantime, the residents of Eastern Aleppo districts continue to stage protest rallies against the terrorists, demanding their exit," the analysts said, adding that they have even mounted pictures of President Bashar al-Assad on their walls.

Over the recent months, Aleppo has been a battlefield between government forces and numerous terrorist groups, FNA reported.

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