Just a day after Russia had brokered a ceasefire which would lead to the evacuation of what is left of the rebels in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, the rebels and government are back to fighting again, with no sign that the evacuation is going to happen any time soon.
The military is described as controlling upwards of 99% of the city at this point, and airstrikes hit what is left of rebel territory, amid artillery fire from the rebel areas into the rest of the city. The UN warned that the new fighting may amount to a war crime, though honestly in Aleppo it’s just the latest of many crimes over the last half decade.
Exactly what happened to the Russia deal isn’t totally clear, but there are reports that one of the government’s allies tried to condition the rebel evacuation on allowing wounded civilians to evacuate from a pair of government villages besieged by the rebels and everyone flew into a rage after that was shot down.
As usual, both sides are blaming the other, with the government claiming the rebels started shelling first, killing six people, and they responded with the strikes, and the rebels, along with the Turkish government, claiming that Syria had obviously violated the deal first.
In reality neither side seemed all that invested in the ceasefire, which primarily happened because Western nations kept pestering Russia to “do something” and Russia finally coaxed everyone into the deal long after there was any chance the rebels might win, or even survive without such a deal.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was publicly critical of the deal in the first place, a rarity given his heavy reliance on Russia in the civil warr, saying the deal was designed to “keep the terrorists and save them” from the military’s offensive.
Such comments were likely a tactical mistake on Assad’s part,as the West is already more than willing to believe anything that goes wrong in Syria is his fault, and this supports the idea he might’ve sabotaged the ceasefire, despite the obvious risks of a falling out with Russia over the matter.
These insurgents are not fighting for freedom, quite the contrary they are there to cause havoc.
Cities unlike countrysides are not taken by ‘blitzkrieg’ strategy but by slogging with great combatant and non-combatant casualties. It has been no secret that the sympathy of the Obama administration was with the rebels in Aleppo. If Obama had hoped that the city fighting in Aleppo would greatly weaken Assad’s army he did not reckon with Putin who is undoubtedly a better chess player than Obama in Syria. Putin prevented a dangerous weakening of Syria’s army in Aleppo by unrestricted bombing. Chess mate? Not yet but Obama’s king is in trouble. Putin’s pieces are surrounding him.
There’s nothing that Assad can do or say that will cause the West to stop blaming him for everything. Russia always tries to play along with the West and give it what it wants, to no avail. It’s also pointless and Russia always end up regretting it. There’s nothing keeping the terrorists from raising the white flag and turning themselves–if they want a chance of survival. What happens then…well, the way I see it, you don’t get to destroy a country, lose, and then expect to come out of it without a scratch, or worse, hailed as a hero because a couple of neocon puppets in the West think that’s what you are.