Syria’s Aleppo a City in Full Shutdown as Fighting Continues

Rebels Claim to Have Captured Police Station, Taken Police Prisoners

The ugly fight for Syria’s largest city of Aleppo shows no signs of letting up, with both sides claiming progress once again and the rebels claiming to have captured a major police station, saying they took the police inside as captives.

The ever-escalating conflict is showing no signs of being decided any time soon, and UN officials familiar with the situation on the ground say the “main battle” hasn’t even really begun yet, suggesting things could get far worse.

Of course “worse” is a relative term, and while Aleppo isn’t experiencing the massive civilian death tolls rebels were predicting, it is both Syria’s financial and manufacturing capital, and the city is in a state of virtual shutdown, with the ordinary civilians unable to go about their lives because of the endless fighting.

Aleppo is seen as a “decisive” battle for both sides, each of which believes that the other could not sustain itself after a defeat. This has both factions adding more and more troops to the city, and no sign of a resolution.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.