Syrian forces will continue 'cleaning' Aleppo, says Assad

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria says his forces will continue "cleaning" Aleppo of terrorists, despite global anger over the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the city in recent days.

"You have to clean. You have to keep cleaning this area and to push the terrorists to Turkey... To go back to

where they come from, or to kill them," he said in an interview with Russian media outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda.

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Western powers have accused Assad and his backers of war crimes amid a renewed Syrian army offensive, supported by Russian air power, against rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

There was "no other option", said the President, adding the city would be a "very important springboard" to "liberate" Syria.

"This is the importance of Aleppo now," he said.

Diplomats from the US and Russia, together with regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are to meet in Switzerland to discuss the crisis this weekend.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will then meet "key regional and international partners" in London on Sunday for further talks on ending the violence.

Aleppo has become the focal point of the five-year Syrian civil war, witnessing fierce fighting between regime forces and rebels in its besieged eastern portion. The United Nations estimated earlier this year that the civil war already has cost around 400,000 lives.

The UN's newly elected secretary general Antonio Guterres says he ending the conflict will be his number one priority. "I believe it is the international community's first priority to be able to end this conflict," he told the BBC.