With the US and Russia planning talks in Switzerland this weekend, there are hopes that the fighting around the city of Aleppo will enter another lull, after several weeks of on-again, off-again fighting between the Syrian government and the Nusra Front.
In the meantime, however, heavy airstrikes are still being reported against the Nusra Front-held east. The attacks have killed a large number of people, including major numbers of civilians, with rescue workers within the city reporting around 150 killed in the last week.
Aleppo has been contested since 2012, but the Nusra Front only really got a presence around there after the February ceasefire began. Nusra was not a part of the ceasefire, but used it to expand their territory from neighboring Idlib into Aleppo Province, and eventually into the city itself.
Control over the city has been split roughly half and half since, with both sides launching attacks and counterattacks. In recent weeks, the Syrian military has had the advantage, and has even gained some additional neighborhoods in the city’s center, as well as in the northern outskirts.
People including several children were killed and wounded by shelling from Al Nusra occupied East Aleppo. Pictures from Rt of government controlled west Aleppo show a city which seems to be still fairly much in tact. Reports emanating from different sources seem contradictory. I would wish reporters from mainstream western news media to join Russian reporters and together visit the various hotspots. That would obviate biased reporting from either side and gives us the most reliable information.
Individual cited in the Reuters piece is one “Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, from Aleppo’s Syria Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue organization that operates in opposition-held Syria.” I believe this is the well-known “White Helmets” who are NOT official Syria Civil Defense and in fact are reputed to have KILLED official Syrian Civil Defense personnel in Aleppo.
Note that since the “White Helments” have come under scrutiny for their connection to Al Qaeda in Syria, now these reports are describing them as “Syrian Civil Defense” – which they are NOT.
The rescue workers are probably the so-called White Helmets. This supposed ‘Syrian NGO’ was created by the UK government, is led by an ex-mlitary officer and consultant for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It is funded by the US/UK. Its members are some time terrorist, sometime western propaganda agents. The local head of the White Helmets is banned from entering the US because of his terrorist connections.