Syrian rebel alliance launches attack to retake all of Aleppo

There, they rejoined other rebel forces who had been fighting within the government-controlled western half of the city.

A cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by Russian Federation and the United States brought a measure of relief to the battered Syrian city of Aleppo on May 5, 2016 but President Bashar al-Assad said he still sought a total, crushing victory over rebel forces.

They will be the first fresh supplies since pro-Assad troops surrounded the rebel-held eastern part of the city on 17 July.

“Whether this is just a temporary setback for the Syrian regime or a turn of the tide, they are no doubt going to continue to unleash heavy air power, which as we have seen over the past almost five years has led to huge numbers of civilian casualties”, Zunes said.

A coalition of rebels and militants surged through regime territory to open a new route into Aleppo’s besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to about 250,000 people.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the breaking of the siege was one of the most significant setbacks for government forces since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

Rebel gains this weekend could change the balance of power in Aleppo, after Assad said a siege by government and allied forces on rebel-held east Aleppo in early July was a prelude to re-taking the city.

Syrians living in London also took to the streets to celebrate news of the end of the siege, honking their vehicle horns and carrying the version of the Syrian flag used by rebels and government opponents.

“Because our fighters are not only facing the Syrian regime but they are also facing the militias, Hezbollah, Iranian militias and Russian Federation”, he said at a news conference in Istanbul. Even moderate rebel groups stated that the siege had been broken, but were quick to admit that the situation was still far from decided.

The Observatory, in its report on the Aleppo fighting, said rebels had taken control of the Weaponry College, the main Artillery College, the Air Force Technical College and the Ramousah Garage area. Government forces still control the cement factory and some military housing.

Syrian state media continued to deny that rebels had taken parts of the road and reported that the air force was intensifying its strikes on “terrorists”, the term it uses to refer to much of the opposition.

That rebel advance severed the primary government supply corridor running into the city from the south, and raised the prospect that government-held western Aleppo might in turn become besieged by the insurgents.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced almost half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

Videos released by rebel groups claim to show gun battles as insurgents moved into buildings in the complex.

The Syrian government seized the only route into rebel-held areas in northern Aleppo last month, prompting a rebel counteroffensive from the city’s south. Such a victory would be a crushing blow to the insurgents.

Residents on both side of the city are suffering. It is not clear whether the rebels would be able to keep their new gains, but the breach causes a dent in the Syrian government’s new confidence and territorial expansion, bolstered by Russian air support.

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.