Rescue Workers: Over 150 Killed in East Aleppo Airstrikes This Week

Bombing Continues Ahead of Weekend Talks

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.

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.