Syrian opposition activists and militant websites say a push by an alliance of rebel groups and al-Qaida-linked militants to open a new front with government forces in Aleppo has failed.
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The development followed intense and deadly battles around Aleppo and stepped up airstrikes by the Syrian and Russian air forces in Aleppo and nearby Idlib province, reports AP.
“Step by step we are getting closer to the situation in which – and I’m only speaking about Aleppo here – we will be able to begin battling together so that there is peace on this territory”, Shoigu told Rossiya 24 television.
Russian Federation backs Assad in the five-year-old Syria conflict, while the United States wants to see Assad step down.
The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a US -backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said on Friday they had seized full control of Manbij near the Turkish border in a significant strategic blow to Islamic State.
The monitoring group said the anti-regime fighters were travelling by bus to Turkey then back into Syria towards the rebel bastion of Azaz, in Aleppo province.
In this frame grab from video provided by the Russian Defence Ministry Press Service, Russian long range bomber Tu-22M3 flies during a strike above an undisclosed location in Syria on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2015. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll from the bombing rose to 32, expecting it to go even higher.
The fighting in Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial and industrial hub, has escalated in the past week, with the rebels severing the main route into the government-controlled west of the city.
The rebel assault targeted key army positions at a cement factory southwest of Aleppo.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, added his voice Monday, describing the fighting in Aleppo as “one of the most devastating conflicts in modern times”.
“No one and nowhere is safe”.
More than 30 Syrian rebel fighters are reported to have been killed in a suicide bombing on a bus near the Atmeh border crossing with Turkey. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Syrian opposition groups had used temporary ceasefires in and around Aleppo to regroup and rearm. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The operation, in which U.S. special forces played a significant role, marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against ISIS two years ago. “People live in a state of fear”, the ICRC chief said.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman on Monday called on Russian Federation to exert its “great influence on the Syrian president” to alleviate the suffering in Aleppo, and criticized Moscow’s offer of a daily truce in the city.
