Seven-year-old’s account restored but new message suggests family in danger as Assad forces advance and Russia calls for opposition to withdraw

Bana al-Abed, a seven-year-old girl whose Twitter postings have offered the world a glimpse into the deprivation and violence in the besieged city of Aleppo, sparked worldwide concern about her safety when her account was abruptly shut down on Sunday night.

The account, which is managed by her mother, Fatemah, appears to have been restored but the latest message, posted on Monday night, suggested that the family was still in danger.

Fears remain over the fate of the family if they are captured by forces loyal to the Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, whose troops and allied militias are pressing their advantage after three months of siege in Aleppo, in an attempt to recapture the divided metropolis.

Attempts to contact the family have not been successful.

Hours before the account was shut down, mother and daughter tweeted a farewell message saying forces loyal to Assad were bearing down on their neighbourhood.

“We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world,” read Sunday night’s tweet.

The mother and daughter, who were interviewed last month by the Guardian in a video call over Skype while planes flew overhead and machine gunfire raged, had apparently received death threats in the days preceding the account’s closure.

Their current location is unknown, but they had published images appearing to show the destruction of their home days earlier.



'I need peace': seven-year-old Bana tweets her life in besieged Aleppo Read more

Bana’s tweets had amassed more than 100,000 followers, among them JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, who sent the girl ebooks of her novels after Bana said she liked to read “to forget the war”. After the closure of the account, the British author retweeted several messages asking after her, using the hashtag “Whereisbana?”



Syrian government forces have taken control of more than half of Aleppo’s rebel districts in an offensive launched in November that on Monday led them, along with an array of Iranian-backed militia fighters from Iraq and Lebanon, to push further into al-Shaar, a district in the eastern part of the city.



The pincer movement was meant to further split rebel-held territory in Syria’s former industrial capital, divided since 2012.

Thousands have been displaced so far in the fighting, with reports emerging of forced disappearances in the aftermath of the capture of former opposition-controlled districts. Monitoring groups say hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured in the weeks since the latest offensive was announced.

Residents told of great deprivation in the remaining, besieged opposition areas, with relentless bombing by warplanes and artillery shelling amid cuts in basic services, such as water and electricity. Few people have access to clean water and food and medical supplies have been exhausted in the campaign.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Destroyed buildings in Aleppo’s eastern al-Shaar neighbourhood as Syrian pro-government troops advance towards the area. Photograph: George Ourfalian/AFP/Getty Images

“No words for describing the situation now,” said Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, a teacher based in east Aleppo who said in a text message that many of those who fled the fighting had ended up in his neighbourhood. “Bombs, bombs, bombs. Regime is advancing from many places and the fear of genocide is what people think of.

“We want the children to leave,” said one nurse in east Aleppo, whose hospital was destroyed by airstrikes. “The children have nothing to do with anything. It’s not their fault that they should bear the burden of crimes that they have nothing to do with. We will be accountable for their blood.”

But there was little sign of any respite even as Russia, a staunch backer of the regime that has continued to target opposition areas with fighter jets, said it would hold talks this week on the withdrawal of all rebels from east Aleppo.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a news conference on Monday that any opposition fighters who remain in Aleppo after such a deal is reached would be treated as terrorists by Moscow.

“We will treat them as such, as terrorists, as extremists and will support a Syrian army operation against these criminal squads,” he said.

On Monday, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution which called for a seven-day truce in Aleppo. Russia said that the ceasefire would allow rebels to regroup.

It was the sixth Security Council resolution on Syria that Russia has vetoed in the five years of the conflict.



In doing so.. they have also held to ransom the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children currently enduring hell in Aleppo,” Matthew Rycroft, the UK ambassador to the UN said. He also criticised China for adding its veto, easing Moscow’s isolation on Syria.

“Despite repeated pronouncements against politicisation and in favour of dialogue, China has decided to side with Russia, a party to this conflict,” Rycroft said.

Russian officials held talks with rebel groups last week in Ankara. At an initial meeting on Monday, they offered a ceasefire with full access for humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo in return for the departure of fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front). However, the Russians claimed there were 3,000 JFS fighters, whereas the Aleppo opposition and most observers say there are a few hundred at most.

On Sunday, the Russians stepped up their demands further, according to an opposition source, demanding the rebels inside the eastern Aleppo enclave guarantee a ceasefire on behalf of the armed opposition in the western outskirts of the city, where JFS are much stronger. It was a guarantee the Aleppo rebels were unable to give.

According to Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute who has been in touch with opposition delegates in Ankara, the Russians called for all fighters to leave the besieged districts.

Lister wrote: “Representatives of Aleppo’s armed opposition met secretly with Russian officials in Ankara on Monday and according to one source in the room, the talks made some progress. However, Russia’s offer of full aid access and a transfer of control of eastern Aleppo to an opposition civil council in exchange for the full withdrawal of al-Qaeda-linked militants and a full ceasefire was reversed several days later. On Sunday, Russia insisted on a withdrawal of all of mainstream opposition fighters, as well as the identification and surrender of all al-Qaida members.”

According to Lister, Turkey convened a secret meeting with Russia late on Sunday to try to salvage the talks, but that no new negotiations were planned.

“Should war trump talks, Aleppo will fall; extremism will flourish and Syria’s war will enter a new, dangerous and likely intractable phase,” Lister said.

Syrian forces seize control of more than half of Aleppo's rebel districts Read more

When the Kremlin intervened in the Syrian war last year, it had advertised its aim as the elimination of Islamic State. Rebels in east Aleppo had evicted Isis from the city in early 2014, losing about 1,500 fighters in the battle.

Isis militants still in the province of Aleppo are sequestered in al-Bab, a town north of Aleppo city that is under siege by Turkish-backed fighters.

So far, few rebel fighters have indicated a willingness to abandon the city, whose fate has long been seen as a bellwether for the state of the conflict, now in its sixth year. A regime victory would relegate the rebellion into a rural insurgency, with east Aleppo being the last major urban area under opposition control.

Assad and his allies appear bent on completing the recapture of the city before the swearing in of the new American president in January.

The UN security council was expected to vote later on Monday on a proposed ceasefire resolution that includes aid deliveries into the besieged districts of Aleppo, but Russia is likely to veto it.