Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the outbreak of the civil war five years ago, has been divided between government forces and rebels since the summer of 2012.
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The rebel coalition, which includes an al-Qaeda affiliated group, said it had managed to take part of the Aleppo base, which lies about 1.6km (one mile) from the besieged rebel areas of the northern city.
On Wednesday, Lieutenant-General Sergey Chvarkov, the director of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria, said the information was given to the United States on Monday, a day prior to the attack, Press TV reported.
“The opposition offensive has not achieved the results that were expected at this stage”.
Damaged vehicles piled on a damaged roof of a auto mechanic service center in Ramousah area southwest of Aleppo, Syria August 2, 2016.
On Friday, rebels launched a new offensive targeting a military academy east of Ramussa.
In the western, government-controlled areas, Unicef said 25 000 people have been displaced and are taking shelter from intense fighting in mosques, university campuses and public gardens.
According to the Observatory, at least 115 civilians, including 35 children, have been killed in the city since the rebel assault began on Sunday.
But rebels have struggled to hold newly acquired territory in the face of heavy Russian air strikes, Abdel Rahman said.
The latest reports from the area are that the government, backed by Russian jets, has regained some ground. Of course, one of the things that has happened in the interim was Kerry’s trip to Moscow mid-July and the beginning of an effort to find some way to cooperate with Russian Federation against terrorist groups in Syria, particularly Al Nusra.
On Tuesday, 35 NGOs including Save the Children and Oxfam said the Russian initiative for corridors out of Aleppo’s rebel-held districts was “deeply flawed” and urged implementation of a United Nations call for a weekly 48-hour humanitarian pause in Aleppo.
Meanwhile, the rebels also accused the government on Tuesday of dropping barrel bombs stuffed with chlorine gas on the rebel-held town of Saraqeb. That accusation was closely followed by a report on Syrian state media accusing the rebels of carrying out a gas attack in Aleppo.
The Russian military helicopter was downed in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province on Monday, killing all five people on board in the biggest officially acknowledged loss of life for Russian forces since they started operations in Syria.
Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Gruden’s death, adding that authorities are now working on bringing his remains back to Slovenia.
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The last delivery to the opposition-held half of the city, home to an estimated 300,000 people, was in June.
