The Army of Conquest Sunday announced “the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo”, pledging to “double the number of fighters for this next battle”.
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The statement added that the group “will not rest until we raise the flag of the conquest over Aleppo’s citadel”.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement reportedly made a decision to send within hours on Sunday 400 more fighters to Syria’s Aleppo area, a battleground where it has suffered heavy losses fighting alongside Syrian government forces against the rebels who united to break Assad’s siege of Aleppo.
About 250,000 people in opposition-held eastern Aleppo have been living under government siege since they were gradually encircled by Syrian government troops – backed by Iranian troops and Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Russian airpower – in the spring, with the final supply lines into the enclave cut off last month.
The city has been a battleground since 2012, when it was stormed by the opposition and divided into a regime-controlled western half and an east under rebel dominion.
“Both sides are amassing their fighters in preparation for the great battle of Aleppo”, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory.
The 10,000-strong alliance of opposition fighters, led by the formerly al-Qa’ida-aligned Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, took the beleaguered Syrian army by surprise on Saturday. “The military operation to destroy terrorists and mercenaries is continuing and the Syrian army is determined to defeat the enemy on the way to Aleppo”, he said.
Opposition fighters listen to a speech at an armament school after they recaptured the military facility south of Aleppo on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
But forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are putting up a fierce fight and have begun pouring in reinforcements.
Al-Abdah said emergency plans were in place to work with local councils in eastern Aleppo to deliver basic services to the area, which the United Nations has warned faced a humanitarian disaster under the government siege.
Aid workers that are allowed to operate in government areas in Aleppo only have supplies for those of the population deemed in need, mostly refugees displaced from other areas, so they are likely to have just a month’s supply for just a fraction of those still in the city.
The city’s grim humanitarian situation deteriorated further after the encirclement, as opposition officials said Syrian and Russian warplanes targeted hospitals, markets and other infrastructure. Whoever wins the battle could perhaps win the war.
“The collapse in the ranks of regime forces is clear and it continues as long as Jaish al-Fatah fighters advance in the city”, Shami said.
Three vans of vegetables crossed into east Aleppo, Abdel Rahman said, but this was a symbolic gesture and the corridor was too risky for civilians or significant supplies to pass.
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. The relief agency helped thousands of residents displaced in last week’s fighting settle in the government side of the city, spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said.
Residents in government-controlled Aleppo expressed fear that they were now in a position to be besieged themselves.
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Aid organisations estimate that more than 1.5 million people are under siege in the west, compared to a quarter of a million civilians still in the east.
