An alliance of rebel factions was able to break the government siege Saturday, according to a statement by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with militants breaking through government lines to connect with fighters in the eastern part of the city, the observatory said.
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Zunes described the physical destruction of Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city at the start of the war, as well as the effects on its people that too mirror Syria at large.
The cadets were predominantly from the Alawite sect of Bashar al-Assad and his late father and predecessor as president, Hafez al-Assad.
A woman flashes the victory sign as she celebrates the news of the breaking of the siege of rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Aug. 6, 2016.
But fierce fighting and continuous Russian and Syrian air strikes in and around the Ramousah area mean no safe passage for besieged east Aleppo residents has been established, activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syria’s pro-government Al-Watan newspaper also said Monday that the Syrian army and its allies had brought “necessary” military reinforcements to recover areas it withdrew from after it carried out a “redeployment in the area”.
An AFP correspondent in the eastern districts said shelling and sporadic clashes were hitting Aleppo but there were no signs yet of significant new offensives.
Although the retaking of government-controlled districts has opened corridors for the sending of food convoys in rebel-held areas, the change of hands has reduced food access in west Aleppo, and the rebel coalition lacks sufficient resources to provide for citizens of the retaken areas.
The Army of Conquest, the coalition of rebel groups led Jabhat Fatah al-Sham which in March 2015 managed to take control of Idlib province to the north-west of Aleppo, said in a statement Sunday that it would “double the number of fighters for this next battle”.
Washington´s United Nations envoy Samantha Power said: “Neither side will be able to win a swift or decisive victory in the battle for Aleppo”.
“Not a single civilian has left the eastern districts because the road is too unsafe and not secured”, Abdel Rahman said. If Fatah Al Sham facilitates the delivery of aid to civilians in Aleppo and ensures their protection, it will win their hearts and minds. “It is however an important battle, the result of which will set the course of the conflict”, said Thomas Pierret, a Syria expert at the University of Edinburgh.
But only a trickle of aid has reached opposition-held eastern neighborhoods, where about 250,000 people are suffering acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine, so far, sources say.
“But regime-held western Aleppo, for example, now has to be supplied via contested “war roads” – improvised roads on which it might not be possible to sustain the swollen population of these western neighborhoods”.
Its role in helping liberate the rebel-held side of the city has positioned them as the most effective fighting force against Assad’s troops.
It added that the military operations are continuing on all axes to the south and southwest of Aleppo and that heavy losses are being inflicted upon the terrorist groups in the arms and personnel.
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The hospital, which had served 70,000 people, was destroyed, the medical charity said Monday.
