PHOTO: Civilians line up for removal from the Damascus suburb of Darayya after a 4-year siege, August 2016

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UPDATE 1935 GMT: White Helmets rescue a girl after airstrikes on the Maysar district of Aleppo:

UPDATE 1445 GMT: Russia’s Ambassador to the UK presents supplies to regime-controlled areas as “humanitarian aid”:

UPDATE 1415 GMT: Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account — run by her mother — has become a first-hand source for the life of civilians in eastern Aleppo city, walks amid the destruction:

UPDATE 1015 GMT: Pro-opposition journalist Rami Jarrah updates on the toll in eastern Aleppo city:

335 civilians have been killed over the past few days with over 1100 wounded. 38 civilians were killed yesterday alone.

3 Civil defense branches have been targeted and put out of service

4 hospitals have stopped all operations.

375,000 people based on a new assessment carried out by local councils servicing the areas are now under total siege in Aleppo, 120,000 of them are children

Bombing is also also continuing elsehwere, including in northern Hama Province:

Latamneh has been repeatedly attacked, including recent strikes that knocked out its hospital.

See Syria Feature: The Russian Destruction of North Hama’s Last Clinic

UPDATE 0815 GMT: The Local Coordination Committees documented 71 deaths, including 13 women and 12 children, across Syria on Monday.

Of the casualties, 35 were in Aleppo Province, most in eastern Aleppo city from pro-Assad airstrikes.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The number of besieged Syrians has more than doubled over the past year to nearly one million, according to the UN’s head of humanitarian aid.

Stephen O’Brien told the Seurity Council on Monday, “There is nothing subtle or complicated about the practice of besiegement. Civilians are being isolated, starved, bombed and denied medical attention and humanitarian assistance in order to force them to submit or flee.”

Almost all of those besieged are in opposition-held areas. They include an estimated 270,000 in eastern Aleppo city, where Russia and the Assad regime re-imposed a siege in late August amid intensive bombing to break resistance.

O’Brien again urged action from the Security Council to back its resolutions calling for an end to attacks on civilians and access to aid:

Without strong backing from each of you, red lines will be crossed again and again; international humanitarian law will be trampled on; war crimes will be committed. And until there is action by you, there will be no accountability.

The Assad regime has hindered any attempts at provision of aid, blocking most requests by the UN. Russia has prevented any Council response with the use of its veto on several occasions.

On September 19, Russia and the regime bombed a UN convoy just west of Aleppo city. There have no been efforts to get to the besieged opposition districts since then, and food rations were exhausted about 10 days ago.

President Assad has denied that there are any sieges, saying it is “terrorists” who are holding civilians hostage.

The regime’s UN Ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, maintained the line on Monday:

Syria rejects the selective pattern by some states in dealing with the humanitarian issue….No one in the world is more committed than the Syrian government to protect the Syrians’ lives which suffer from the terrorism of armed organizations.

The regime’s “surrender or starve” strategy has succeeded since August in forcing the total or partial capitulation of several opposition-held areas, including the Damascus suburbs of Darayya and Moadamiya and the al-Wa’er district in Homs.

US Cites 13 Regime Commanders for Killing Civilians

The US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, named 13 Syrian military commanders, whom she said had been involved in killing, injuring, and torturing civilians.

“The United States will not let those who have commanded units involved in these actions hide anonymously behind the facade of the Assad regime,” Power told the Council. “Those behind such attacks must know that we and the international community are watching their actions, documenting their abuses, and one day, they will be held accountable.”

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov accused Power of being hypocritical by not naming rebels for their killing of civilians.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, which documents civilian casualties, says more than 95% of the fatalities this years were caused by the regime and Russia.

Turkish Court Orders Arrest of Syrian Kurdish Leader Muslim

A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim, the co-chair of the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Warrants were issued on Tuesday for 48 members of the PYD and the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, including several senior leaders.

The 48 are accused of involvement in a bombing in Ankara on February 17 that killed 29 people. The blast occurred during evening rush hour near both the Turkish General Staff and Parliament buildings.

Jaish al-Islam Claims Fightback in East Ghouta, Killing 35 Regime Troops

The rebel faction Jaish al-Islam claims that it has killed dozens of regime troops, repelling an attack in the East Ghouta area.

Jaish al-Islam said three tanks were destroyed and about 35 troops slain amid the attack along the Damascus-Homs highway and from the villages of Bahriyah, Midani, and Rihan.

Pro-Assad forces have advanced in the East Ghouta region near Damascus since the spring, putting pressure on Jaish al-Islam in its base of the town of Douma.