ALEPPO VICTIMS: "WE ARE CRYING AND AFRAID"

A biting winter's chill seeps through embattled Aleppo as a city braces itself for what could be the worst months of a war approaching its sixth year.

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Driving into government-controlled west Aleppo, through military checkpoints, a landscape of skeletal buildings is a monument to Syria's spiral into violence.

The fate of Syria's second city now looms as a bellwether for the course of this confrontation - ominous for some, enticing for others.

"By the end of December, we'll drink wine to celebrate a new year, and our triumph," says a young soldier standing by a green bus plastered with photographs of a smiling President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian forces, bolstered by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air cover, are advancing with speed across a swathe of rebel-held territory in eastern Aleppo.