Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition news service, said the rebels had broken the siege but the route was “not fully secure yet”.
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The rebels launched their offensive on Aleppo last month, two weeks after the regime-backed by Russian airstrikes and fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah-cut off the sole supply line leading into eastern Aleppo’s opposition-controlled neighborhoods.
Earlier, the rebel forces claimed that they have taken the main artillery base and now they are fighting to take other military academies adjoining the base.
In July, the Syrian army cut off the last supply route into the eastern part of that city but fighting flared up as several rebel groups in Aleppo unleashed repeated attacks to break that siege.
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham said on Saturday that rebels pushing out from inside Aleppo city had linked up with those on the outskirts, according to AFP news agency.
They were now fighting to take the other military academies adjoining the artillery base that are among the country’s largest.
The artillery base is nearly 2 km from the besieged opposition area.
If they have managed to connect with eastern Aleppo, the government-held west of the city would effectively be isolated from the capital Damascus.
He said it is expected the government and allied troops will fight back, but added rebels will protect their hold on the strategic corridor which would allow for a new lifeline for the rebel-controlled part of Aleppo, in the east and north.
An AFP journalist in the eastern districts said a single truck of vegetables entered the neighbourhoods late Saturday to be sold in the markets the following day.
The Syrian army recaptured military positions the rebels had stormed earlier on Saturday in southern Aleppo province in northern Syria, according to pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV and a military source.
He cited in particular the suffering around Aleppo, which is at the centre of a battle between the rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
Mohammed Khandakani, a resident of rebel-held Aleppo who accompanied the fighters to the frontline Saturday, said heavy bombing on the aeronautics school resulted in massive explosions.
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. Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate said it had seized huge caches of weapons from regime forces in the artillery school south of Aleppo. Rebel operations and territory is shown in green, government forces in red and Kurdish groups in yellow.
Some of these groups have received military training overseen by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Meanwhile, Syria’s national Television said the army is determined to drive out the rebels from the bases they stormed into on Saturday.
“The rebels coalition – it’s called the Army of Conquest – has basically made some major progress”, he said.
On Sunday, at least one girl was killed in opposition fire on Hamdaniyeh, said the Observatory.
“Of course I have faith in the army, but I can’t help being scared”.
Abdel Rahman said the advance had left the regime forces “in a very hard position despite Russian air support”.
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The Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies see the outcome of the battle over Aleppo as decisive, hoping for a crushing blow to insurgents.
