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Syrian army launches intense air attacks after rebels ‘break’ Aleppo siege

They then pushed northeast into the district of Ramussa, linking up with rebel groups that had fought south from inside the city.

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The battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial heart, is pivotal for the Syrian civil war.

However, government forces appear to be redeploying to avoid the rebels making any further gains.

The rebel forces victory appears to be short lived with Russian Federation intensifying its bombing campaign in and around the city of Aleppo in order to root out the radical Islamic extremists with ties to a multitude of known terror organizations.

“The terrorist groups are suffering huge losses and were not able to break the encirclement of the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo”, the state news agency Sana said late on Saturday, quoting a military source. There was no immediate comment from the Russian military.

It said residents could choose to stay and fight, or flee. The al-Nujaba militia announced on its Facebook page that it sent 2,000 fighters.

The SDF’s Manbij Military Council released a statement Monday saying it was prepared to give elements of ISIS who remained in the city the opportunity to leave “on the condition that they release all the civilians they are holding and all their prisoners”.

People carry a Free Syrian Army flag and a Jabhat Fatah al-Sham flag as they celebrate the news of the breaking of the siege of rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria August 6, 2016.

In Istanbul, Syrian National Coalition chief Anas al-Abdeh told AFP he was confident the whole city could now be taken.

US weapons such as TOW anti-tank missiles continue to go to these al-Qaeda fighters, along with Saudi-supplied weapons, although the New York Times reports today that this flow has slowed in recent weeks as supply roads have been cut by Syrian Army and allied forces. “And the reason we managed to do that is simply because we, the revolutionary forces, chose to be united and act as united”.

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.

“To be able to break these forces and liberate the siege and now be in a stage we we are talking about liberating the city is miraculous in every way”, he said Monday. He says consumer items would continue to be delivered to meet the residents’ needs.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to take full control of Aleppo, pre-war Syria’s most populous city, which has been divided between rebel and government-held areas.

The establishment of a corridor into Aleppo, where an estimated 300,000 people still live, preserves for the moment the survival of the opposition enclave.

Although the regime still has access to western Aleppo through the north, the route is not safe enough for civilians trying to escape the fighting to pass, SOHR head Rami Abdurrahman told Reuters. “The regime is using cluster and vacuum bombs”, said Abu al Hasanien, a senior commander in Fateh Halab, the coalition of moderate rebel groups inside the city.

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Crucially, a new supply route has been opened to bring aid to the city’s inhabitants. The confederation’s push was a last chance opportunity to relieve the pressure on both the insurgent forces and the hundreds of thousands of civilians still residing in the city.

Syrian rebels breach government-imposed siege on Aleppo