Syria army advances in two Aleppo fronts

30th, September 2016  

Beirut: Syrian forces advanced in the battleground city of Aleppo on Friday, backed by a Russian air campaign that a monitor said has killed more than 3,800 civilians in the past year.

Syria’s army was advancing on two Aleppo fronts, as talks between key players Washington and Moscow —which back opposing sides in the war — appeared on the verge of collapse.

Damascus’s bid to recapture all of the divided city prompted the UN to warn of “a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Just over a week after it announced an operation to recapture all of Aleppo, the army was advancing both in northern and central Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor and Syrian state media.

In the north, it recaptured the Handarat former Palestinian refugee camp, as well as the old Kindi hospital, said Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman. Rebels had held the hospital since 2013 and capturing it allows government forces to threaten the opposition-held Heluk and Haydariyeh neighbourhoods in northeast Aleppo.

“The army’s strategy is to chip away until it reaches the heart of the rebel-held areas,” Abdel Rahman said.

In central Aleppo meanwhile, fierce clashes shook the Suleiman al Halabi neighbourhood, which is divided by the frontline that separates the rebel-held east and regime-held west.

The army is seeking to capture the opposition-held part of the district and advance to the main water supply station for the government-controlled part of Aleppo which is located in the neighbourhood.

Syrian state television said eight civilians had been killed and 35 wounded by rocket fire on the government-held part of Suleiman al Halabi and neighbouring Midan district.

The Observatory and a correspondent on the ground said air strikes on Friday were focused on the battlefield, unlike in previous days, which had seen heavy bombardment of civilian areas.

Since the army operation began, Damascus and Moscow have pounded east Aleppo with air strikes, barrel bomb attacks and artillery fire.

The assault has levelled apartment blocks and put hospitals out of service, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in opposition areas that have been under siege for most of the past two months.

It has seen some of the worst violence since the March 2011 beginning of the conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the population.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location and flight patterns.

Moscow said that it would continue its bombing campaign in Syria, despite Washington’s threat and international concern over the situation in Aleppo.

“Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box,” MSF director of operations Xisco Villalonga said in a statement.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien on Thursday told the Security Council that Aleppo was descending into the “merciless abyss of a humanitarian catastrophe unlike any we have witnessed so far in Syria.” — AFP