The Latest: Russia says Aleppo criticism is hypocritical

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

The Russian military says Western criticism of the operation to retake rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo is hypocritical.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that the militants had used over 100,000 residents of the city's eastern neighborhoods as human shields. He says civilians fleeing eastern Aleppo have recounted militant repression against anyone who attempted to leave.

Konashenkov said video reports showing the damage to civilian areas from purported Russian strikes had been staged by the militants.

He said Russian sappers inspecting schools and hospitals in eastern Aleppo found that all of them had been turned into militants' headquarters, ammunition depots and arms factories.

Konashenkov also accused Western powers and international organizations of failing to deliver humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has charged Western nations with supporting "terrorists," the Syrian government's term for all those fighting against it.

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5:10 p.m.

Britain's House of Commons has debated emergency measures to help save thousands of civilians trapped in the Syrian city of Aleppo, with lawmakers backing action.

Conservative lawmaker Andrew Mitchell compared the situation to the mass slaying of civilians in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 people, mainly men and boys, were killed in 1995.

Mitchell says that despite pledges to avoid similar events, "here we are today witnessing, complicit, in what is happening to tens of thousands of Syrians in Aleppo."

In an emergency debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mitchell outlined a nightmarish scenario for civilians, and appealed for an organized evacuation under the U.N. flag for the wounded and those "caught up in this terrible catastrophe."

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5 p.m.

Amnesty International says a U.N. report that said scores of civilians were "extrajudicially executed" in Aleppo points to apparent war crimes.

The rights group made an "urgent plea" Tuesday for all parties to the conflict to protect the civilian population in the city, where government forces are on the verge of defeating rebels.

The group called the global inaction toward what is happening in Aleppo "shameful."

Earlier in the day, the U.N. human rights office said it has received reports that pro-government forces killed at least 82 civilians as they entered the last remaining rebel strongholds.

Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty's Beirut office, says the reports that civilians, including children, "are being massacred in cold blood in their homes by Syrian government forces are deeply shocking but not unexpected."

Amnesty International called for all parties to the conflict to grant safe passage to civilians wishing to flee the fighting.

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4:20 p.m.

The U.N. special adviser for Syria says the past 24 hours have been the most dramatic so far in "the bloody, bitter, horrific battle of Aleppo," and warned that those responsible would be held accountable for the bloodshed.

Speaking to reporters in Oslo on Tuesday, Jan Egeland said he hopes the battle ends soon so that humanitarian work can begin.

Several unconfirmed reports of mass killings have emerged from Aleppo over the last 24 hours. The remaining rebel fighters, along with thousands of civilians, are trapped in a rapidly shrinking enclave surrounded by Syrian troops and allied militiamen.

It marks a major defeat for the rebels, who seized eastern Aleppo in 2012.

Egeland said it was important that "those who have orchestrated and organized this attack and this battle understand that they are accountable for what all of the forces do."

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3:20 p.m.

Russia says it is fed up with calls from the United States to halt the fighting in Aleppo, where government forces are on the verge of driving rebels from their last remaining enclave in the northern city.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists Tuesday that "we are tired of hearing this whining from our American colleagues in the current administration that we need to immediately halt military action."

Lavrov said that while urging Russia to halt military action, the U.S. did nothing to separate moderate rebels from "terrorists" in Aleppo. He also criticized Western governments for what he said were "untrue" accusations that Russia was blocking aid convoys to Syria.

His remarks, made during a visit to Serbia, were carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has been carrying out airstrikes in support of his forces for more than a year.

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3:15 p.m.

The U.N. human rights chief says the "crushing of Aleppo" doesn't amount to the end of Syria's war and insists it could become more dangerous "if the international community continues to collectively wring its hands."

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein on Tuesday decried the bloodshed in Aleppo, including "the wanton slaughter of men, women and children," and warned of a possible repeat in places like Douma, Raqqa and Idlib that are controlled by opposition fighters or the radical Islamic State group.

In a statement Tuesday, Zeid said international law requires that all people detained must be treated humanely. But he also called for "urgent measures" to help protect those who flee, "given the terrible record of arbitrary detention and torture in Syria even prior to the start of this conflict" nearly six years ago.

He said U.N. officials were documenting rights violations against the Syrian people "with the firm conviction that one day those who are responsible will be held to account."

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2:55 p.m.

The U.N.'s children's agency is warning that dozens of unaccompanied children are trapped in a building under fire in eastern Aleppo and is calling for their immediate evacuation from the rebel enclave.

UNICEF said in a statement on Tuesday that there could be more than 100 children trapped in the building in eastern Aleppo, according to reports from an unnamed doctor in the city.

UNICEF regional director, Geert Cappelaere, says it's "time for the world to stand up for the children of Aleppo and bring their living nightmare to an end."

Pro-government forces have launched a ferocious assault on Aleppo's few remaining opposition-held neighborhoods, trapping thousands of civilians under unrelenting heavy fire. There are unconfirmed reports that government forces are killing civilians.

Cappelaere says that UNICEF is "deeply concerned" over the unverified reports of the "extrajudicial killings of civilians, including children."

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1:25 p.m.

The U.N. humanitarian aid agency says its partners in Syria have recorded about 37,000 people who have fled eastern Aleppo amid the latest advance of pro-government forces, but that thousands of others have not been counted.

Spokesman Jens Laerke of OCHA on Tuesday decried the "complete meltdown of humanity" in Aleppo, and said that untold thousands are believed to remain behind in shrinking areas held by rebel fighters.

Laerke said in Geneva that his office has that "many civilians have not fled, and may be hiding whether they can."

He says the U.N. and its partners, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, are actively working to get "blanket access" across the city — not just in western Aleppo that has long been controlled by government forces and their allies.

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1:10 p.m.

French President Francois Hollande is pressing for Russia to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians trapped in rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

Hollande said after meeting Germany's chancellor in Berlin on Tuesday that the Aleppo "humanitarian situation ... is unacceptable."

He says there are 120,000 people who are being "held hostage, there is no other word for it — who are victims of bombing, who are victims of repression."

Hollande says everything must be done to allow the population's evacuation and get aid in through protected corridors, and that Turkey and particularly Russia will be pressed on that.

He says that "without the Russians, there is no Syrian regime that can carry out operations" and that Russians "will be responsible for a situation that they helped create if they do nothing to allow access for humanitarian aid."

Hollande also says it's time to send "a humanitarian ultimatum" but didn't specify a time frame.

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12:05 p.m.

The U.N. human rights office says it has received reports of Syria's pro-government forces killing at least 82 civilians as they entered the last remaining strongholds of the rebels in eastern Aleppo.

Spokesman Rupert Colville of the U.N. human rights office says the reports recount pro-government forces entering homes and killing some civilians "on the spot" in the former rebel enclave.

Colville spoke to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

He says 11 women and 13 children were among those reportedly killed in four neighborhoods of the increasingly-shrinking rebel enclave in the city of Aleppo.

Colville says the reports came in late the previous evening and that he doesn't know exactly when the killings took place.

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9 a.m.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is urging those fighting in Syria's Aleppo to do all they can to protect and spare civilian lives.

The ICRC says in a statement on Tuesday that thousands of people with no part in the violence "have literally nowhere safe to run."

The dramatic appeal came after Syrian military announced the previous day it gained control of 99 percent of the former opposition enclave in eastern Aleppo, signaling an impending end to the rebels' four-year hold over parts of the city.

ICRC says a deepening humanitarian catastrophe and further loss of life can be averted only if the basic rules of warfare — and of humanity — are applied.

Retaking Aleppo would be President Bashar Assad's biggest victory yet in the civil war.