Syrian government forces have closed the only main road into rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo, besieging hundreds of thousands of people, a monitor and rebel fighters say.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces and their allies reached the Castello road on July 17, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.
"The eastern neighborhoods are now completely besieged,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the monitoring group told the AFP news agency.
Aleppo-based rebel fighters said that opposition-held neighborhoods in the city are now fully besieged, adding that fighting continued in the area.
Government troops reached a point where they could fire on the Castello road -- a key supply route -- earlier this month, effectively cutting it off, though some people still made the dangerous journey.
The United Nations has warned that nearly 300,000 people rely on the Castello road for travel, food, and medicine.