Fighting continues over the Syrian city of Aleppo, once the nation’s industrial and financial capital. While the Syrian military repelled al-Qaeda’s attempts to retake Castello Road, the last supply route into al-Qaeda’s half of the city, al-Qaeda shifted its focus against the pro-government districts instead.
Heavy airstrikes from the Syrian military kept al-Qaeda’s forces from making any serious gains into the government-held districts, though locals within a Christian neighborhood noted many homes were damaged by al-Qaeda shellling.
Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, which was excluded from the February ceasefire in Syria, used the relative calm to push deep into the area around Aleppo, capturing a number of villages and ultimately taking about half of the city itself. They and the military have been trading fire for months in the area to little effect.
The loss of Castello Road to the military likely puts Nusra on a bit shorter timetable, as they have no reliable way of getting more supplies into the city, and are ultimately either going to have to carve out of a new supply line, or risk losing that territory back to the military.
Aleppo has been contested by myriad factions throughout the Syrian Civil War. The hugely valuable city was presented by several groups as the key to winning the war, but with no one ever taking the city outright, the war has just continued. At this point, it’s not clear what’s left to be gained from holding the segmented and badly damaged city.
“At this point, it’s not clear what’s left to be gained from holding the segmented and badly damaged city.”
What? Is Ditz serious????? Maybe the Soviets should just have abandoned Stalingrad to the Nazis? Or maybe he’d opine that Iraq should have just ignored Fallujah instead of retaking it from ISIS? Yeesh, what a genius…
I think he means what is to be gained for the rebels in hanging on. It’s clear that for the government, retaking the city means they have a city. But for the rebels, holding on to a besieged enclave only means they control a pile of rubble. They have nothing to gain from being there.
Hardly. First and foremost — none of them are rebels. Al-Qaeda — rebels? ISIS — rebels? Army of Conquest — rebels? If you know a rebel group by name that has more then 10 members and HAS NOT perpetrated horrendous crimes against civilians — let me know. As none of them are Syrian citizens — where will they go? All thry can do is insure that US and Saidi Arabia continue supporting them — or else there will be bombings in Saudi Arabia. Just to remind them what will happen if Saudi Arabia chickens out. Now they can no longer count on Turkey since Davutoglu list intrapsrty struggle. Turkey is out of the game of supporting them. So — where now? Will they be repackaged as refugees and sent to Europe as model future EU-loving citizens. Without foreign support these international religious cults and assorted mercenaries would not have survived a month. With no support from population — they can survive only by extortions, kidnappings and murder to make people fear them. How much longer can we prete d that both sides are equal??
The two sides certainly are not equal, but the term rebels in no way implies that a group is not barbaric, murderous, and fanatical. Maybe in the USA the term “rebel” has positive connotations. But elsewhere, “rebel” is a synonym for “treachery”, “sedition”, and conjures up imagery of warlords and thugs. So yes, al-qaeda are rebels, ISIS are rebels.
Or neocon last stand.
Let’s just abandon the residents to the tender mercies of Al-Qaeda, Saudi and US darlings — The Army of Conquest and all other organ eating, head chopping humanitatians. No population should be abandoned to that faite. To put it clearly — anybody SANE should condemn the brutality and wish for the victory of Syrian Army. We should be on the side of prople who want to be free. What is this ‘neutrality”?