The Syrian army says that pro-government forces have cut off all supply routes into the eastern, "rebel"-held part of Aleppo in the country's north.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, eastern Aleppo has been under effective siege since July 11, and advances in recent days by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have strengthened their control of the only route in.
"Today there is no way at all to bring anything into Aleppo," Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman said on Wednesday.
Once Syria's largest city, Aleppo has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.
Taking full control of the city would be a significant victory for Assad.
An advance by pro-government forces around the only remaining supply route into the eastern sector this month enabled them to fire on it at close range, making the battlefront Castello road too deadly to use and putting at least 250,000 people in rebel-held districts under siege.
"We're hearing from activists and eye-witnesses that regime forces are taking more and more of that area," Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said.
"That is posing a real precarious problem for rebel fighters* because the city is being increasingly encircled by regime forces."
On Tuesday, the general command of the Syrian army called on opposition fighters in eastern Aleppo to lay down their weapons, the government-run SANA news agency reported.
In text messages to civilians and fighters, the army urged residents to "join the national reconciliations and expel the mercenary outsiders from the areas where the citizens reside", SANA added.
State media also said humanitarian corridors have been created for residents who wantes to escape the besieged areas of the city.
"Opposition activists are saying they are facing more dire circumstances - that the siege is creating a humanitarian crisis in and around the city," said Jamjoom.
[aljazeera.com]
27/7/16
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*rebels : terrorists
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, eastern Aleppo has been under effective siege since July 11, and advances in recent days by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have strengthened their control of the only route in.
"Today there is no way at all to bring anything into Aleppo," Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman said on Wednesday.
Once Syria's largest city, Aleppo has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.
Taking full control of the city would be a significant victory for Assad.
An advance by pro-government forces around the only remaining supply route into the eastern sector this month enabled them to fire on it at close range, making the battlefront Castello road too deadly to use and putting at least 250,000 people in rebel-held districts under siege.
"We're hearing from activists and eye-witnesses that regime forces are taking more and more of that area," Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said.
"That is posing a real precarious problem for rebel fighters* because the city is being increasingly encircled by regime forces."
On Tuesday, the general command of the Syrian army called on opposition fighters in eastern Aleppo to lay down their weapons, the government-run SANA news agency reported.
In text messages to civilians and fighters, the army urged residents to "join the national reconciliations and expel the mercenary outsiders from the areas where the citizens reside", SANA added.
State media also said humanitarian corridors have been created for residents who wantes to escape the besieged areas of the city.
"Opposition activists are saying they are facing more dire circumstances - that the siege is creating a humanitarian crisis in and around the city," said Jamjoom.
[aljazeera.com]
27/7/16
--
*rebels : terrorists
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Russia announced Thursday the start of an expansive new humanitarian and military mission in Aleppo...
ReplyDeleteThe mission is set to focus on the use of Russian armed forces to open four secure corridors that will allow civilians and members of the moderate opposition group the Free Syrian Army to abandon the city.
EFE
28/7/16