Syria's state media and an opposition monitoring group say that Syrian troops and their allies have captured more ground in Aleppo's Old City, gaining a new hold in the heart of the divided city. The state SANA news agency says that the Syrian forces in the early hours of Wednesday morning established control over two districts north of the ancient Citadel in the heart of the city — the Aghiour and Bab al-Hadid neighborhoods. The Russian defense ministry says a Russian colonel who worked as a military adviser in the government-controlled part of the Syrian city of Aleppo has died in rebel shelling.