“Over the past few days, well-planned and careful action by the Syrian troops resulted in a radical breakthrough. Half of the territory previously held by the militants in eastern Aleppo has been de facto liberated,” Gen. Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the defense ministry, said.

“The most important thing is that over 80,000 Syrians, including tens of thousands of children, have been freed. Many of them at long last were able to get water, food, medical assistance at humanitarian centers deployed by Russia. Those Syrians served as human shields in Aleppo for terrorists of all flavors,” the general stressed.

He added that calls by some Western officials to subject Russia to further sanctions over the operation in Mosul indicated that those countries did not want civilians in Aleppo freed.

Earlier, head of the German Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Norbert Röttgen, along with other MPs, called on Berlin to impose more sanctions against Russia over the offensive in Aleppo, and open an airlift to the militant-held areas similar to the historic Berlin airlift in the late 1940s. They cited damage allegedly caused to the city by Russian airstrikes. The strikes, according to the Russian military, were paused in mid-October and did not resume.

The German Foreign Ministry said Damascus and “its supporters, above all Russia and Iran, bear the biggest responsibility” for civilian suffering in Aleppo.

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Syrian govt forces liberate about 40% of east Aleppo from terrorists – Reconciliation Center

The Russian criticism comes as the Russian-run Syria Reconciliation Center reported that over 500 fighters in Aleppo chose to surrender to the advancing Syrian Army.

“Over the past 24 hours, 507 fighters chose to leave the city districts that remain under terrorist control to the safe areas and surrender their weapons. In accordance with the Syrian president’s offer, 484 militants, who are local residents, have been immediately pardoned,” the report said.

This week, Damascus intensified its siege of eastern Aleppo, a city that for years was split between government troops and militant forces. The Syrian Army has captured the north-eastern part of the city.

The operation also put a strain on the ability of armed groups to prevent civilians from fleeing areas under their control. Previously, some of the groups controlling eastern Aleppo, like the Al-Qaeda off-shoot Al-Nusra Front, used deadly force to stop civilians trying to escape.

READ MORE: Kerry making ‘unbelievable effort’ to save Syrian rebels from Trump, Russia confirms

The military success of Damascus in Aleppo come as US Secretary of State John Kerry is engaged in a last-ditch effort to convince Russia to stop the operation, according to a Washington Post column. The diplomat reportedly wants to keep rebels in control of part of the city before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January and withdraws Washington support from the militants.

(RT)

The mistake was "primarily based on human factors," Brigadier General Richard 'Tex' Coe, who headed the CENTCOM investigation, told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.

Russia was notified of the planned strike – for the first time – using the “de-confliction” hotline, but was given the wrong location, Coe said. The target coordinates supplied by the US coalition were 9km (6 miles) off, he said.

When Russian officers called the hotline to report the strikes were targeting Syrian positions, they were kept on hold for 27 minutes because the US officer who was the designated point of contact was not available. The bombing continued in that interval, according to Coe, and stopped once the Russian message went through.

The airstrikes targeted Syrian forces near Deir ez-Zor the airport, a vital supply conduit for the enclave besieged by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) forces. Damascus has accused the US of deliberately targeting Syrian troops in order to scuttle the ceasefire negotiated in Geneva. The Pentagon has maintained the airstrike was an accident, and that IS was the intended target.

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US airstrikes on Syrian troops were ‘intentional,’ lasted nearly 1 hour – Assad to AP

“It was not an accident by one airplane; it was four airplanes which kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour or maybe a little bit more,” Syrian President Bashar Assad told AP on September 22, adding that IS forces attacked the Syrian Army at the same time.

"The Syrian government puts all the responsibility for aggression on the US, as the facts show that it was a deliberate attack, but not a mistake – even if America says the opposite,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in September at the UN General Assembly, adding that this act of “vile aggression” proved the US and its allies were “accomplices of Islamic State and other terror groups.”

The September 17 airstrikes unraveled the truce agreed to on September 9 in Switzerland by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry. The ceasefire envisioned the creation of US-Russian joint implementation centers, but the Pentagon refused to even consider the idea.