Story highlights UN says Aleppo will be "totally destroyed" if attacks continue

Syrian regime gives chilling warning for gunmen to leave eastern Aleppo

(CNN) The Syrian military and its allies have gained control of part of a key neighborhood on Aleppo's front line, pushing into the city's rebel-held east, Syrian state media and a UK-based monitoring group said.

"An army unit in cooperation with the supporting forces carried out a 'swift' operation against the fortified sites of the terrorist organizations in Bustan al-Basha neighborhood in Aleppo city," state-run SANA quoted a military source as saying.

Bustan al-Basha is located on the front line between besieged rebel-held eastern Aleppo and government-held areas in the center and west of the city. It is the first time the government has made gains in that neighborhood since losing the area to rebels three years ago, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Rebel-held districts in the city had suffered intense aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russian warplanes for more than a week before a lull on Wednesday.

But the UN said Thursday that at least 376 people had been killed in past two weeks, and 1,266 injured.

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