SYRIAN government forces and their allies advanced deep into east Aleppo yesterday amid a swift collapse of rebel defences, threatening to split the opposition-held enclave into two parts along an east-west axis.

The advance into the city’s Sakhour neighbourhood brings the military within just over half a mile of commanding a corridor in eastern Aleppo for the first time since rebels swept into the city in 2012.

Thousands of civilians and scores of opposition fighters have been able to escape from east Aleppo in the past few days, thanks in large part to the most recent government advances.

Hundreds of families sought refuge in areas held by the government or in Sheikh Maqsoud, which is under Kurdish control.

They were able to do so because the speed of retreat by jihadist elements meant that these insurgents were unable to booby-trap humanitarian corridors and threaten those wanting to leave.

Syrian state media reported that government forces had liberated the Jabal Badro neighbourhood and entered Sakhour yesterday after taking control of the Masaken Hanano neighbourhood on Saturday.

Syrian state TV broadcast a video showing a tearful reunion between a soldier and his family in Masaken Hanano after nearly five years apart.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through opposition contacts, reported that 1,700 civilians had fled to areas under government control.

nIsrael reported killing four Isis militants in an air raid conducted in western Daraa yesterday morning in retaliation for fire directed at an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied Golan Heights, which damaged several cars.