Fighting raged in Aleppo between rebels and Syrian regime forces on Sunday, a day after the opposition broke a weekslong government siege on its eastern half.
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Beirut-Regime and rebel forces have sent in hundreds of fighters and extra military equipment to join the crucial battle for Syria’s second city Aleppo, a monitoring group said Monday.
The rebel advance at the weekend cut off a key regime access route on the city’s southern edges, previously used to ferry supplies to around 1.2 million residents in western districts.
“We announce the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo” after a week of continuous fighting, the group said in a statement.
On Sunday, State television said “Our forces have assigned after facing attack of thousands of armed force, and along with this army has found a new way to provide food and gas in”.
Reinforcements were also arriving from Iraq via Iran from the Iraq-based Hizbollah Brigades, Asaib Ahl Al Haq and Al Nujaba militias.
“Most of the clashes in Ramussa are taking place against Hezbollah and Iranian fighters”, Abdulrahim said, referring to Assad’s backers in the Lebanese Shiite movement and Tehran. None of the militias’ officials agreed to speak on record, saying they were not authorized to give press statements.
Heller said the result could be ugly for both sides, with a protracted battle on multiple fronts in populated areas.
The intensification of the bombing campaign in response to the fracture of the siege began on Sunday in Aleppo when the Russian airstrikes targeted the artillery college in the city that al-Nusra Front extremists had seized control of and were occupying.
Last month, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham declared it was severing its ties to al-Qaeda in order to build closer ties to other Syrian and rebel and jihadist groups.
The Observatory said the group received reinforcements of fighters on Monday, as the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said that the Syrian army and its allies also received the needed military aid for restoring positions they had lost. “And the reason we managed to do that is simply because we, the revolutionary forces, chose to be united and act as united”. Airstrikes from regime and Russian warplanes continued to target opposition fighters, local residents and rebels said. They then pushed forward, cutting off government-held territory in the west.
Governor Mohammad Olabi said on Monday that at least 10 fuel tankers were able to reach the government side of the city. However, urgent repairs to electricity infrastructure are critical as pumping water is the only way to meet the needs of the city’s two million residents.
The group’s fighters surged through regime territory on Saturday, breaking a government siege in a major setback for the regime and opening a new route into the northern city’s besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to an estimated 250,000 people. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.
Meanwhile it is the civilians who continue to suffer.
The International Committee for the Red Cross told the AP that eastern Aleppo was still inaccessible to its trucks. She said there were reports that one truck carrying vegetables had entered the besieged area, but said she had not seen it, suspecting the vegetables were quickly sold.
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Assad’s troops imposed a siege last month after seizing high ground overlooking the Castello Road, the only thoroughfare bringing aid to the east of the city from Turkey, which backs the opposition.
