Hours after the announcement of the siege being lifted, the rebel coalition, which calls itself Aleppo Conquest and includes groups like Jaish al-Islam, declared al-Hamdaniya – the largest residential district in southern Aleppo – a military zone.
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Rebels have been trying to break through a thin strip of government-controlled territory to reconnect insurgent areas in western Syria with their encircled sector of eastern Aleppo, in effect breaking a government siege begun last month.
Islamist rebels in Syria say they have broken through to besieged opposition-held areas in eastern Aleppo.
A military officer says that trucks with food also entered the city, divided between government and rebel control, earlier in the day.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the development was one of the most significant setbacks for government forces since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
The fighting between Syrian government and opposition forces is likely to continue until either side gains full control of the city, thereby making Aleppo an important bargaining chip in the next round of Syria peace talks.
Arrayed against the opposition fighters are the forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad, Lebanese Hizballah militants and the Russian air force. “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.
Meanwhile, almost all of the strategic northern city of Manbij, in Aleppo province, has been seized by US-backed militias after a more than a two-months’ long offensive against ISIS militants, the observatory and a military official said.
“After a large-scale military operation carried out in six stages, the Conquest Army managed to put an end to the siege”, Al Jazeera’s Amro Halabi, reporting from the rebel-held half of the city, said.
Abdel Rahman told AFP on Monday that hundreds of opposition fighters had arrived in Aleppo from the surrounding province and neighbouring Idlib.
Rebel factions who claim to have made gains in Syria’s city of Aleppo have come under intense air bombardment from pro-government forces. Syrian state media denied the opposition breakthrough, with the official news agency SANA reporting on Sunday that “fierce battles” were ongoing in the city.
According to the group’s own statements, its suicide bombers have played a key role in the advance, which has included the seizure of a government military complex in the Ramouseh district.
“I sent my sons to school but they are all nervous, and the teachers replaced their regular lessons with courses on what to do if there is shelling”, said the 48-year-old resident of the regime-held Furqan district.
A spokesman for Jabhat Fateh al-Sham said he was confident they could hold back President Assad’s forces: “The coming days should see an established, safe route that civilians can use”, he told the Telegraph.
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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. Government forces still control the cement factory and some military housing.
