On Saturday, anti-government groups had overrun a series of buildings in a military academy on the southwestern edges of Aleppo.
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A doctor in rebel-held Aleppo, Farida, who declined to give her last name out of concern for the safety of her family in government held-areas, said an intense bombing campaign is taking place inside the city. It would also cut the Syrian army’s link with the southern route out toward the capital Damascus.
The rebel Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly the Nusra Front, claimed to have won the battle, and ended the siege of eastern Aleppo.
A commander from a moderate rebel group told Reuters that it was still early days and things were not easy. “There are no safe routes for civilians in government-held districts to use to get into or out of the city”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Extremist rebels have poured in thousands of fighters mainly from the rebel-held province of Idlib in north western Syria and deployed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in the operation that was named the “Epic battle of Aleppo”.
Since the rebel takeover, violence – like Russian airstrikes on rebel targets – has ramped up.
Two rebel groups and a monitor said on Saturday they had broken the siege, but pro-government media outlets denied the claim and said the Syrian army was in fact regaining recently taken territory from rebels. Government forces still control the cement factory and some military housing.
The source said the Syrian forces and allied fighters are targeting the withdrawing rebels with heavy artillery.
Terrorists remain surrounded in eastern and south-eastern parts of the city despite Saturday reports about alleged breaking the siege.
A live Syrian state TV report from the outskirts of the artillery base in Ramousah, in southwest Aleppo, broadcast the sound of gunfire, explosions and warplanes flying over.
Last month, the Syrian government seized the Castillo road, the only route into rebel-held areas in northern Aleppo, prompting a rebel counteroffensive from the city’s south to attempt to break the siege.
Both Moscow and its Syrian and Iranian allies see the outcome of the battle over Aleppo as decisive, counting on a crushing blow to insurgents who were on the march until Russian Federation intervened, shoring up Assad’s rule.
An AFP journalist in eastern Aleppo city said residents were on the streets and shooting celebratory gunfire into the air.
Humanitarian groups say the situation in eastern Aleppo is very worrying. It added that government forces targeted militants as they retreated from the area.
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The monitor said more than 700 rebels and government fighters had been killed in since the offensive began on Sunday, including 200 on Saturday alone.
