Escalation in Fighting as Airstrikes Reported in Aleppo

Syria's Largest City Now a Battleground

BBC reporters on the ground are saying that several air strikes were launched against Syria’s largest city of Aleppo today, and that artillery fire was also launched against the eastern part of the city shortly thereafter, pointing to another escalation in fighting there.

Aleppo had long been a place of relative calm during the Syrian Civil War, but fighting erupted over the weekend when a new rebel faction calling itself the Brigade of Unification declared Aleppo to be a pro-rebel city, engaging in major battles with local military forces.

The Brigade group claimed to have deployed 1,000 fighters to Aleppo and promised to “liberate” the city on behalf of the rebel forces in the rest of the country. As usual this only meant turning the city into another battleground.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed quite pleased with Aleppo’s newfound status, saying it proved that the “pace of events” was accelerating against Assad and predicting a “safe haven” would be established across Northern Syria, with the rebels using it as a base of operations to attack the rest of the country.

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.