Syrian regime forces were on the defensive around Aleppo on Sunday after a rebel alliance said it inflicted a major setback by breaking a three-week government siege of the battered city.
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Strikes in the city of Aleppo in the bid to degrade and destroy the al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, however, paled in comparison to Sunday nights strikes in the city of Idlib that have produced shocking images of multiple burning buildings struck by incendiary bombs in a bid to root out al-Nusra rebels and recapture the balance in the fight to stabilize Syria.
Despite the confederation’s claim of victory, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has reported that fighting continues and that Russian aircraft continue to strike the rebels in an attempt to counter the push.
Syrian National Coalition chief Anas al-Abdeh, in an interview with AFP, also praised a new-found unity among opposition factions that has seen the Fateh al-Sham Front – which used to have ties with Al-Qaeda – join forces with other rebels in the battle for Aleppo.
Al Mayadeen TV channel has circulated a communique of the Jaish al-Fatah group that announced “the beginning of a battle for liberating the entire Aleppo”.
Drone footage released by Syrian rebels shows the moment a suicide bomber blew himself up, allowing rebels to break through government front lines.
A physician inside the city, Farida, who declined to give her last name out of concerns for her family’s safety, said prices for basic goods inside eastern Aleppo remain inflated due to the siege-like conditions.
For the rebels, and especially jihadist groups, keeping the uprising in Aleppo alive is critical.
“We are in our trenches but there are insane air strikes of unprecedented ferociousness”, a commander in the rebel coalition told Reuters.
But the coalition of rebel fighters broke through regime lines on Saturday, opening a new route into the city’s north-eastern neighbourhoods.
“The western districts of Aleppo are now besieged”. The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) congratulated opposition groups on making “spectacular gains (which send) a clear message to the Assad regime, Iran and Russian Federation that they will not be able to defeat the Syrian people or dictate the terms of a settlement”. The city has been divided into rebel and government-held parts since 2012.
MR RAMI ABDEL RAHMAN, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on the rebel advance.
The leader of a Syrian opposition group, Anas al-Abdah, meanwhile, hailed the breaching of the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods of Aleppo as “miraculous”.
An official from Syrian Civil Defense, a voluntary search-and-rescue group also known as the White Helmets, confirmed that this was the case, adding that many residents wanted to leave eastern Aleppo once a secure road out was opened. Though not enough provisions to feed the up to 300,000 people estimated to be living in rebel-held districts, the convoy amounted to a symbolic act of defiance. “Most recently I’m hearing that the markets are closed and it’s next to impossible to purchase food”.
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.
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But only a trickle of aid has reached opposition-held eastern neighborhoods, where about 250,000 people are suffering acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine, so far, sources say.
