Human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakkol Karman has said that the Syrian people is in an open confrontation with Iran and Russia’s brutal occupation in Syria.

Karman, in a statement posted today on social media, wrote to say that the constant persistence of peoples is inevitable just like they are destined to win in the end.

As forces loyal to the Syrian regime close in on the last, most fortified districts under opposition control, there are reports that pro-Syrian president troops have been entering homes in the last remaining rebel strongholds in eastern Aleppo and killing civilians “on the spot”, the UN has said.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, corpses were abandoned in the streets with residents too terrified by the shelling to bury them. “Real massacres” were taking place in the city, the war monitor said.

The head of communications at the international committee of the Red Cross, who is in Aleppo, said: we need to act now, and depoliticise the process of protecting civilians. We need to put their lives first. And we need to do it now before it is not too late.

Syria’s official TV reported that pro-government forces were in control of 99 percent of what once was opposition-held Aleppo.

For moths into an offensive led by Assad’s military and Iranian-backed militias, and supported by Russian airpower, tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in opposition territory, east Aleppo. 

On Monday evening, the UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, expressed “grave concern” over reports of atrocities against a large number of civilians, including women and children.

In a statement, Ban stressed the obligation of all parties “to protect civilians and abide by international humanitarian and human rights law. This is particularly the responsibility of the Syrian government and its allies”.