The rebel front line is now pushing northwest into western held Aleppo on the edges of the Hamdaniya neighbourhood and a housing estate called the 3,000 project, rebels and the Observatory said.
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In eastern Aleppo, despite some scenes of celebration as fighters broke the siege yesterday, the lack of a safe route out means conditions for residents remain unchanged.
On Sunday, rebel forces brought seven pick-up trucks full of fruit and vegetables into the eastern districts of Aleppo to be distributed to local markets, an opposition fighter said.
Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said food prices in government-held parts of Aleppo have already gone up.
The Syrian government seized the only route into rebel-held areas in northern Aleppo last month, prompting a rebel counteroffensive from the city’s south.
Three vans of vegetables crossed into east Aleppo, Abdurrahman said, but this was a symbolic gesture and the corridor is too risky for civilians or significant supplies to pass.
“Of course I have faith in the army, but I can’t help being scared”.
The battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial heart, is pivotal for the Syrian civil war. “Food is already getting more expensive and the coming days risk being very hard”, he said.
In May, he condemned the fighting in Aleppo after airstrikes killed scores of people, including children.
The celebration is likely premature, since fighting is still going on in the city.
Syrian state television reported that government forces were moving closer to the facilities captured by the opposition and had killed “dozens of terrorists” – a term the regime uses when referring to rebels.
But a military source told Syria’s official news agency Saturday the Air Force isolated the operations with air and ground support.
SANA said 10 civilians were killed on Saturday in rebel shelling on two government-held districts.
The surprise advance in Ramousah allowed fighters from insurgent areas in western Syria to break through a strip of government-controlled territory on Saturday and connect with fighters in the encircled sector of eastern Aleppo.
Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) is an alliance of radical fundamentalist factions dominated by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and Ahrar al-Sham, which had pledged to raise an army to lift the siege of eastern Aleppo.
The Fateh al-Sham Front posted photos apparently showing artillery, trucks, armoured vehicles, and other weapons in wooden crates.
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News of the rebel advance caused food prices to rise by as much as four times in western Aleppo, the Observatory said. Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against Assad’s rule but has since evolved into a brutal war that has drawn in world powers.
