“The western districts of Aleppo are now besieged”, he said.
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Islamists from JFS led a counter offensive against the Syrian government and its Russian allies around Aleppo last week, breaking a weeks-long siege of the rebel-held east of the city. Government areas frequently come under attack from rebel shelling, and rebel-held areas are routinely shelled and come under air attack from Syrian and allied Russian forces.
A coalition of armed groups in the city attacked a military academy and rejoined rebel fighters battling from the other side.
The rebels hailed the breach as a major collaborative achievement a week after launching their counteroffensive.
Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) is an alliance of radical fundamentalist factions dominated by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and Ahrar al-Sham, which had pledged to raise an army to lift the siege of eastern Aleppo.
As the insurgents took over parts of the government’s Ramousah military complex, which contains a number of military colleges, they broadcast images of the weaponry and ammunition they were taking possession of.
Official media denied the siege had been broken but implicitly admitted that regime forces were on the defensive, reporting new air raids Sunday and saying that pro-government areas were facing shortages in the country’s ravaged second city.
It would also give rebels access to armaments stored in the base the Syrian army has used in the five-year conflict as a strategic platform from which to shell opposition targets.
“The turning point was the fall of the artillery school”, said Islam Alloush, spokesman for the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group and a former Syrian army officer, who said artillery was always viewed as “god of war” in the military.
“The worst method the regime uses is not chemical weapons but it is the sieges, the slow death”, Abu Bakr said, speaking via Skype from the frontline.
The victory prompted crowds of cheering people in the streets of eastern Aleppo, which has been under siege since June when the last road into the city was cut by pro-regime forces. The war media arm of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has been fighting with Syrian forces, acknowledged the rebels’ advance on Aleppo’s besieged eastern neighborhoods, home to about 250,000 people. The government and major ally Russian Federation had offered corridors for residents to leave rebel-held areas, an offer met with skepticism from the locals who viewed it as an attempt to depopulate the area.
Rebels had posted footage of their fighters embracing and celebrating the end of the government encirclement of Aleppo, in place since 17 July. The Castillo road remains under government control but activists say it regularly comes under fire.
The monitor said more than 700 fighters from both sides had been killed in the onslaught, a lot of them rebels because of the regime’s “aerial superiority”.
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The Syrian state news agency said on Sunday morning that the air force was carrying out “intensive” strikes on areas of south-western Aleppo.
