Despite Russia announcing a ceasefire in Aleppo only yesterday, Syrian Army forces continued their offensive, pushing deeper into the increasingly sparse territory of al-Qaeda and other rebel factions in the easternmost portions of the city.
The Russian Defense Ministry has reported the rebels, who had already lost most of their territory in the two weeks prior, lost another 33% of their territory in the past four days, leaving the Syrian government with control of 93% of the entire city, by far the most they’ve held since the Civil War began.
While Russia heavily backed the Syrian military early in their offensive in Aleppo, they haven’t carried out any airstrikes against the city in almost two months. Despite this, the Syrian military has been gaining momentum for weeks, and while the rebels say they remain determined to fight, the US is said to be negotiating a pullout.
The fighting has left the eastern part of the city in chaos, with civilians fleeing by the thousands, and hundreds of civilians said to be unaccounted for. UN officials expressed concern that the military is detaining some of the fleeing civilians, though at this point it’s unclear what has happened to the men, all aged between 30 and 50.
I see Ditz has not copy-pasted his usual end paragraph about how useless and destroyed Aleppo is, though that may be simply owing to lack of space.
The “arrested” people are, as the Syrian government has repeatedly said, merely being screened to ensure none of Obama’s pet jihadi cannibal headhunters manage to sneak out after shaving their beards and pretending to be harmless human beings.
It will certainly be good for the people of Aleppo when 100% of the city is back in Syrian government hands. Isn’t it strange that for the past several years of “Syrian civil war,” we have not received any “news” reporting that the people of Damascus have been clamoring for the “rebels” to conquer their city and “free” them from Syrian government control? Could it possibly be that, like New Yorkers, folks in Damascus prefer not to be governed by “rebels” who fly airplanes into civilian buildings, detonate car bombs in city markets, and behead citizens who decline to live their lives according to the religious rules of the “rebels”?