Syria report progress in government siege of Aleppo

The group’s fighters surged through regime territory on Saturday, breaking a three-week government siege in a major setback for the regime.

Jabhat Fatah Al Sham, as the former Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al Nusra group now calls itself, seems to have been the main driving force behind the six-day offensive, leading the charge against regime forces in south-west Aleppo.

“Anyone who heads to rebel-held areas will be safe, and we will continue to protect the lives of all Syrians, no matter what your affiliation or background”, the branch of the Free Syrian Army active in Aleppo said.

The people of Aleppo, including children, are burning tires in order to create a “smoke curtain” above the city, blocking the warplanes from identifying targets to bomb.

Steadfast regime ally Moscow has provided air support for forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.

The war media arm of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the group fighting alongside the Syrian government, conceded the rebels’ advance, adding that airstrikes leveled one of the military colleges after forces withdrew.

Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters inspect a dead body of what they said was an Islamic State fighter inside a shop in Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, August 7, 2016. The loss of Aleppo would be a crushing blow for rebels.

“We have now seized full control of the Ramousah area.We are in our trenches but there are insane air strikes of unprecedented ferociousness”.

Aleppo, Syria’s pre-war economic hub, has been divided since 2012 between a government-held western half and eastern neighborhoods under rebel control.

Al-Abdah said emergency plans were in place to work with local councils in eastern Aleppo to deliver basic services to the area, which the United Nations has warned faced a humanitarian disaster under the government siege.

A rebel commander said opposition forces were able to capture the Armament School after they detonated five auto bombs that resulted in the “total collapse” of the defenses of government troops there. The Beirut-based group does not comment on its military operations.

The group, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, last month distanced itself from parent organisation al-Qaeda in a move meant to bring it closer with other rebels.

Meanwhile, almost all of the strategic northern city of Manbij, in Aleppo province, has been seized by US-backed militias after a more than a two-months’ long offensive against ISIS militants, the observatory and a military official said.

The Assad Military Engineering Academy, another large government army complex, is located just north of Hamadiya.

During the fight to break the siege, the group’s official releases continued to refer to Syrian government forces as the “Nusayri army”, using a pejorative term for Alawites.

Government forces, with the help of Russian airstrikes, cut Aleppo’s rebel-held areas off in July, with about 250,000 remaining in the city. Pictures of residents rejoicing and celebrating have hit the internet.

Three vans of vegetables crossed into east Aleppo, Abdurrahman said, but this was a symbolic gesture and the corridor is too risky for civilians or significant supplies to pass.