Military experts say the initial aim of the Syrian army’s new battles in Aleppo is to besiege the rebel-held areas and cut off their supply lines to force a surrender.
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The arrival of reinforcements from Iraq, where Shi’ite militia are fighting their own war against the Islamic State group, shows how the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts have leapt borders, to become a broad sectarian war across the Middle East.
A second line of attack, aimed at villages south of Aleppo and supported by what a pro-government fighter called “dusk to dawn” bombardment, is meant to isolate Telat al-Eis, a hill captured by rebels in May that commands fire over the region. The city, Syria’s largest and once its commercial hub, has been the focus of fighting in recent months.
The government advance in Ramussa further seals off Aleppo’s opposition-held eastern districts, under renewed siege since Sunday by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
One person was killed by the blast of the barrel bomb, according to the US-based Syrian American Medical Society, which supports one of three hospitals in Aleppo where the victims were taken. But there is little sign that any party is poised for victory or can restore stability, and foreign powers are becoming more involved. Rebels last week advanced in Hama, prompting fierce clashes with government forces. This news story is related to Print/148875-Syria-regime-retakes-Aleppo-district-from-rebels/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. Assad has allied with other Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.
“The message from Assad and Russian Federation is this: ‘You have to accept my conditions or die, ‘” he said.
In a two-page summary of a classified report submitted to the United Nations, the OPCW said most of the 122 samples that it collected at multiple sites in Syria “indicate potentially undeclared chemical weapons-related activities”.
The White Helmets civil defence units said 120 people were hospitalised and posted a video showing coughing people and children being administered oxygen at one of the local hospitals. Medical sources in Aleppo have accused the Syrian regime under President Bashar al-Assad of using its warplanes to pound the neighborhood of Sukkari “with barrel bombs ‘laden with poison gas'”.
However, the government has a history of being accused of similar attacks. The report could not be independently verified and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released.
Chemical weapons are banned.
However, the deal did not remove stocks of chlorine, a dual-use chemical that has industrial applications but can also be used as a crude chemical weapon, delivered by improvised barrel bomb.
The group said that it would preserve the human rights of all Syrians and the institutions of the state, including the military, and seek to avoid the mistakes made by the US occupation in Iraq.
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Parts of the 1070 district and a school remain in rebel hands, the Observatory said.
