A fighter from the Syrian pro-government forces mans a gun inside damaged houses as they approach the Baeedin district in eastern Aleppo, near Masaken Hanano, which is still under rebel-control on November 23, 2016. The government last week resumed its drive to retake the east of the northern Syrian city, where more than 250,000 civilians have been trapped under siege by the army for months, with dwindling food and fuel supplies. After days of ferocious bombardment, regime troops now control half of the strategic Masaken Hanano district, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Capturing the district would give the army line-of-fire control over several other parts of the rebel-held east and divide it in two.