SYRIAN troops captured another district of Aleppo over the weekend as rival French and Russian UN security council resolutions were blocked.

Russia used its veto to block a French draft resolution demanding a unilateral ceasefire by Syrian forces fighting to rid Aleppo of Islamist fighters and their Western-backed allies.Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said: “This waste of time is inadmissible.”

A Russian counterproposal for aid to be delivered to Aleppo as part of a resumption of the US-Russian ceasefire agreement that would including joint military action against al-Qaida’s affiliate the Levant Conquest Front (LCF) was voted down.

During the debate Syrian UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari accused France of harking back to its days as the colonial power in Syria.

He said it would be better if Paris and other Western powers followed Russia’s lead and backed a political process to end the crisis under “Syrian leadership and without any foreign interference.”

On Saturday the Syrian army captured the northern Aleppo district of Oweija, tightening the noose on the rebels.

Troops also took back at least seven villages in the north of Hama province as infighting continued between the US-backed Ahrar as-Sham and LCF offshoot Jund al-Aqsa.

Bloody fighting between the two extremist factions broke out in the south of neighbouring Idlib province last week, with the former chasing the latter from several villages yesterday.

Yesterday Jund al-Aqsa pledged allegiance to Ahrar as-Sham’s ally the LCF in a bid to establish a truce before the government ousted the groups from Hama altogether.

On Friday night residents of the Damascus suburb of Hamah helped the army drive Free Syrian Army fighters from the town.