A coalition of rebels and jihadists surged through regime territory on Saturday to open a new route into Aleppo’s besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to an estimated 250,000 people.
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Speaking in Istanbul Monday, opposition leader al-Abdah praised the rebel fighters and said Aleppo residents had nothing to fear from the rebels, “because the main aspect of our work in Aleppo is to liberate them”.
According to the latest reports coming out of Aleppo, the Syrian forces killed 69 terrorists in heavy clashes with foreign-backed militants in an area southwest of the embattled city on Sunday. There were 15 military strikes on healthcare facilities in the city in just the month of July alone.
The Monday edition of Al-Watan, a Syrian daily close to the government, said the army and allied forces had received “the necessary military reinforcements to launch the battle to retake the areas from which it withdrew”. The city has been divided into rebel and government-held parts since 2012.
But some rebel groups described the Russian initiative as a ploy to recapture all of Aleppo. The Castillo road remains under government control but activists say it regularly comes under fire.
Videos released by rebel groups claim to show gun battles as insurgents move into buildings in the complex.
Syrian regime forces redeployed yesterday to escape being surrounded in neighbourhoods they control in Aleppo, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the civil war. Such a victory would be a crushing blow to the insurgents.
It would also give rebels access to armaments stored in the base, which has been used by the Syrian army in the country’s five-year conflict as a centre from which to shell opposition targets.
Residents on both side of the city are suffering.
Anas al-Abdah, president of the opposition Syrian Coalition, told reporters in Istanbul, Turkey, that the victory – which saw rebel fighters defeat the might of the Syrian regime along with Iranian, Hezbollah and Russian military power – was “almost a miracle”.
Humanitarian groups say the situation in eastern Aleppo is very worrying. The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) charity group said that already depleted medical facilities were targeted by strikes 15 times in July.
“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.
Pope Francis condemned the continued fighting in Syria, saying that “it’s unacceptable that so many helpless – including many children- must pay the price of the conflict, the price of closed hearts and the lack of desire for peace by the powerful”.
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In September 2013, when the US and other major Western powers appeared to be on the brink of using military force in Syria to dislodge the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, Francis staged a special penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Square to pray for peace, and criticized the idea of widening the conflict at nearly every turn.
