Rebel Offensive in Syria Challenges Government Siege of Aleppo

[robert99]

Obama: no safe haven for al-Qaeda in Syria
US President Barack Obama said that the United States will “continue intense fire efforts against al-Qaeda in Syria, which, no matter what name it calls itself, cannot be allowed to maintain a safe haven to train and plot attacks against us,” after meeting Aug. 4 with his national security team at the Pentagon.
but ...
Rebel alliance launches 'battle for all of Aleppo' | News | DW.COM | 08.08.2016
The "Army of Conquest," a coalition of rebels and jihadists including the former Al-Nusra Front, said in a statement Sunday it would "double the number of fighters for this next battle."
On Sunday, the insurgents came under intense air attack from pro-government forces trying to repel their advance, which saw the rebels break through a strip of regime-controlled territory and ending a month-long siege of the only remaining open route into the northern city.

"We have now seized full control of the Ramousah area...We are in our trenches but there are insane air strikes of unprecedented ferociousness. The regime is using cluster and vacuum bombs," said Abu al Hasanien, a senior commander in Fateh Halab, the coalition of moderate rebel groups inside the city.
Syrian rebels breach government-imposed siege on Aleppo
In a major offensive Saturday, an alliance of over two dozen rebel groups pushed government forces and allied fighters out of parts of the southern Ramouseh district, including from a number of military colleges, a bakery, a post office, a parking lot and a section of the highway.
The Levant Conquest Front posted pictures of loot from one of the military academies, the artillery school, including armored vehicles and ammunition.

"The turning point was the fall of the artillery school," said Islam Alloush, spokesman for the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group and a former Syrian army officer, who said artillery was always viewed as "god of war" in the military. Alloush said the rebel groups put in massive efforts and ammunition into the battle, adding that his group— which is strongest near Damascus— had mobilized fighters from five neighboring provinces to take part.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/w...overnment-siege-of-aleppo.html?ref=middleeast
The Nusra Front’s leader announced in July that his group was changing its name to the Levant Conquest Front and severing its ties with Al Qaeda to remove a pretext for the West to bomb its forces. While Western officials dismissed the move as a semantic change that did not reflect a shift in goals or ideology, analysts said it could ease cooperation between the jihadists and other rebels.


That is what appears to have happened, with the jihadists proudly sharing images on social media of suicide bombers who helped launch the battle over the weekend.

 

[robert99]

Syria's civil war: Rebels push to take all of Aleppo
“The battle for Aleppo is decisive. Whoever wins the battle could perhaps win the war. For the rebels, keeping hold of Aleppo is leverage – it’s a bargaining chip that they could use to perhaps force the Syrian government back to the negotiating table in Geneva,” Al Jazeera’s Reza Sayah, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said.

“At the same time, if the government is able to take over Aleppo, they take away that bargaining chip. If they have control of the city, there’s no longer incentive for them to go back to Geneva.”
Aleppo capture 'only matter of time': Syrian opposition
Syrian National Coalition chief Anas al-Abdeh, in an interview with AFP, also praised a new-found unity among opposition factions that has seen the Fateh al-Sham Front -- which used to have ties with Al-Qaeda -- join forces with other rebels in the battle for Aleppo.

He praised a new "political and military unity" among the rebels, saying this was "a key factor" behind the success of the opposition in Aleppo.

"I think almost all the armed groups participated... and for the first time they showed a very professional level of coordination and work."

A major role in the fight for Aleppo has been played by the Fateh al-Sham Front, which changed its name from Al-Nusra Front after breaking off ties with Al-Qaeda late last month.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/090820161
Various rebel and Islamist groups joined forces to break the siege from the southwest and succeeded in cutting through the government forces on Saturday.

The Financial Times (FT) reported that the rebels’ success was due in part to a shipment of new weapons, money, and supplies from international backers.

“At the border yesterday we counted tens of trucks bringing in weapons,” a Syrian activist told the FT anonymously. “It’s been happening daily, for weeks,” he added, “weapons, artillery — we’re not just talking about some bullets or guns.”

Two rebels who spoke with the FT said that they believe the money and supplies came from Middle Eastern countries that support the rebels against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The goods were trucked into Syria across the Turkish border.

Revealed: the £1bn of weapons flowing from Europe to Middle East
Eastern European countries have approved the discreet sale of more than €1bn of weapons in the past four years to Middle Eastern countries that are known to ship arms to Syria, an investigation has found.

Thousands of assault rifles such as AK-47s, mortar shells, rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons and heavy machine guns are being routed through a new arms pipeline from the Balkans to the Arabian peninsula and countries bordering Syria.
...
The weapons pipeline opened in the winter of 2012, when dozens of cargo planes, loaded with Saudi-purchased Yugoslav-era weapons and ammunition, began leaving Zagreb bound for Jordan. Soon after, the first footage of Croatian weapons emerged from Syria.

 

[robert99]

Chlorine and barrel bombs dropped on Aleppo - Chlorine and barrel bombs dropped on Aleppo, Syria hospital reports | News | DW.COM | 11.08.2016
Fighting around the city has increased in recent days as rebel fighters broke the government forces' main route into the west of Aleppo, which was once the country's largest city, at the end of the ancient Silk Road trading route to Asia.

There were reports from a hospital and a civil defense group on Wednesday that chlorine gas was dropped alongside barrel bombs leading to the deaths and injuries. Hamza Khatib, the manager of Al Quds hospital in Aleppo said the hospital had recorded four deaths from gas poisoning and 55 injuries. Khatib said he would keep fragments from the barrel bombs and from victims' clothing for analysis.
Russia declares three-hour air strike pause in Aleppo
Russia's military has announced a three-hour daily halt in air strikes on Syria's Aleppo to allow humanitarian convoys in, but the United Nations said it was not nearly long enough to help trapped civilians.
On Monday, President Bashar al-Assad sent thousands of reinforcements to mount a counterattack in Aleppo after rebels broke through government lines two days earlier.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/13/w...on&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
The battle for Aleppo — Syria’s most populous city — is once again raging, once again trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians, once again rallying fighters seeking an advantage in the five-year-old civil war.

But it is just as likely that Aleppo will continue to burn, the war will move no closer to resolution — and many people will continue to suffer and die.

The greatest price for the recent fighting has been paid by Aleppo’s civilians. The encirclement of the rebel-held districts has left residents with dwindling supplies, and Syrian and Russian airstrikes frequently target civilian areas, damaging homes and medical facilities. And recent days have seen reports of poison gas attacks on rebel neighborhoods that have left residents sick.

This week, 15 doctors in eastern Aleppo released a public letter to President Obama, saying that 42 medical facilities had been targeted in July and calling for help to stop the bombs.

“Continued U.S. inaction to protect the civilians of Syria means that our plight is being willfully tolerated by those in the international corridors of power,” the letter read, accusing the United States and other world powers of standing idly by.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/15082016
Syrian and Russian warplanes launched a series of airstrikes against opposition forces in Aleppo over the weekend in an attempt to prevent them from launching counter-offensives against regime forces and breaking the siege on the their part of that key city.

The wave of airstrikes began on Saturday and continued into Sunday. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights they targeted opposition forces in both Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
(This is now the new prestige battle for Assad & allies - without air support, the rebels will have difficulties. Whoever wins though, not a lot of Aleppo will be left standing)

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...an-militants-using-ceasefires-to-regroup.html
Syrian troops repelled a rebel advance near Aleppo on Monday, forcing opposition forces to retreat from positions they seized a day earlier as heavy fighting continued in the country’s largest city.

The rebel assault on Sunday targeted army positions at a cement factory southwest of Aleppo. But opposition activists and militant websites said Monday that the insurgents retreated following a massive government counterattack, the Associated Press reported.

Russia has been launching airstrikes in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces for nearly a year, and Syrian and Russian warplanes have stepped up their raids in recent days in Aleppo and the rebel-held Idlib province nearby.

Meanwhile, Russia and the United States are close to starting joint military action against militants in the Syrian city of Aleppo, the RIA news agency on Monday cited Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.

...
The battle for Aleppo is “one of the most devastating urban conflicts in modern times,” Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said on Monday.

“No one and nowhere is safe. Shellfire is constant, with houses, schools and hospitals all in the line of fire. People live in a state of fear. Children have been traumatized. The scale of the suffering is immense,” Maurer said in a statement.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/world/middleeast/syria-aleppo-russia.html
Russia also suggested that it was close to an agreement on a military collaboration with the United States to attack Islamic State fighters in the Aleppo area as part of a solution. Such a joint effort would be a new level of cooperation between the two powers in seeking a way out of the five-year-old Syria war, in which the Russians and Americans basically back opposite sides.

The developments suggested that Russia wished to avoid the appearance of responsibility for the suffering in Aleppo, the once-thriving commercial epicenter of northern Syria that has been a strategic battleground for much of the war.

Political analysts of the Syrian conflict said they were skeptical. “I cannot see where the Russians and Americans will find common ground on Aleppo,” Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma and the author of the Syria Comment blog, wrote in an email. “Perhaps the Russians are simply playing for time and trying to deflect possible Western or regional backlash?”

 

[robert99]

Syrian conflict: Russian bombers use Iran base for air strikes - BBC News
Russia's defence ministry says it has used a base in western Iran to carry out air strikes in Syria.
In recent months, senior Russian and Iranian officials have discussed boosting their military co-operation, reports the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow.

Last week, Russia asked Iran and Iraq to allow Russian cruise missiles to fly through their airspace for attacks on terrorist targets in Syria.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/w...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
From the air base, in Hamadan, northwest Iran, the Russian bombers destroyed ammunition dumps and a variety of targets linked to the Islamic State and other groups that had been used to support militants battling in Aleppo, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Historians and American officials said on Tuesday that the Iranian decision to let Russia base its planes and support operations in Iran — even temporarily — was a historic one.

“This didn’t even happen under the shah,” said John Limbert, a former American foreign service officer stationed in Iran, referring to the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from 1941 to 1979.

In the shah’s era there were American military advisers who moved in and out of Iran, and a series of listening posts in the country’s northeast where the military and American intelligence agencies monitored the Soviet Union.

But the sense of sovereignty runs so deep in Iranian culture that American efforts to have a bigger presence in such a strategic location were repeatedly rebuffed. Mr. Limbert speculated that Russia is paying handsomely for the privilege, and noted that for Iran today, the prospect of gaining revenue “can create a lot of flexibility.”

 

[robert99]

Seems like the new Russia/Turkey/Iran alliance (see eg PressTV-Russia says working with Turkey over Syria ) in Syria is turning on the Kurds too -
Syria conflict: Government jets 'bombs Kurds in Hassakeh' - BBC News
Syrian government jets have reportedly bombed Kurdish-held areas of the north-eastern city of Hassakeh for the first time since the civil war began in 2011.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Kurdish security forces had been targeted.

The Syrian military has not commented, but sources said the Kurds had seized government buildings in Hassakeh and nearby Qamishli.

Both sides were later reported to have agreed a ceasefire.

 

[robert99]

PressTV-UN halts Syria humanitarian task force
The United Nations has suspended a meeting of its humanitarian task force in Syria amid concerns over the ongoing conflict in the Middle Eastern country.

Speaking at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Thursday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that he had decided to stop the meeting after just eight minutes, arguing it made “no sense” to plan aid deliveries when they would not be let into the humanitarian besieged areas.

"Not one single convoy in one month has reached any of the humanitarian besieged areas," de Mistura said, blaming relentless fighting.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/middleeast/russia-syria-mediterranean-missiles.html
The Russian cruise missiles are not a game-changer in the war. But the long-range bombers flying from Iran, and the heavier payloads they can carry, pose a new threat to insurgents and civilians.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that two ships from the country’s Black Sea Fleet, the Zelyony Dol and the Serpukhov, fired three missiles from positions off the coast of Syria in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Kalibr missiles are a new addition to Russia’s arsenal, similar to American Tomahawk cruise missiles. And like Tomahawks, they are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Far more important militarily is the decision to fly the long-range bombers from Iran rather than from Moscow as it had before; if it continues, this could result in a more devastating air war over a long period of time.

 

[robert99]

Russia 'showed-off' over use of Iran airbase for Syria strikes - BBC News
Russia has stopped using an Iranian airbase to bomb targets in Syria, both countries have said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said the operation was "over for now" and the planes had gone.

Iran's Defence Minister Hossein Deghan had earlier criticised Russia for publicising the raids last week, saying it had exhibited a "show-off" attitude.

Gen Deghan was asked why Russia had chosen to reveal its presence there whereas Iran had not.

"The Russians are interested to show they are a superpower to guarantee their share in the political future of Syria and, of course, there has been a kind of show-off and ungentlemanly [attitude] in this field."

Gen Deghan explained that Russia had "decided to bring in more planes and boost its speed and accuracy in operations".

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/middleeast/syria-aleppo-un-aid.html
In a briefing to the Security Council, the official, Stephen O’Brien, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said that while he welcomed Russia’s support last week for a 48-hour cease-fire in Aleppo — as he had proposed earlier in the month — there had been no assurances from other combatants.
He described the crisis in Aleppo, portrayed in images of dead and wounded children like that of a 5-year-old boy pulled from the rubble last week, as “the apex of horror at its most horrific extent of the suffering of people.”

While he said efforts were still underway to secure the proposed 48-hour cease-fire in Aleppo, Mr. O’Brien expressed little hope of avoiding “a humanitarian catastrophe unparalleled in the over five years of bloodshed and carnage in the Syrian conflict.”

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...ested-Russian-strikes-on-Syria-s-Aleppo-.html
Iran says it requested Russian strikes on Aleppo
Russian warplanes bombed Aleppo at Iran’s request to assist its military advisors on the ground in the flashpoint Syrian city, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.
Russia surprised the international community last week when it announced that its warplanes had flown out of Iran’s Hamedan base to conduct strikes against targets in Syria.

That announcement prompted Iranian defense minister General Hossein Dehghan to criticize Russia’s “showing off and inconsiderate attitude.”

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman on Monday denied any differences with Russia over the use of Hamedan, adding that Russian raids from Iranian territory had ended for now.

“These planes did not leave (Monday) but on Thursday, in accordance with the land operations and not under pressure from any other country,” Shamkhani said on state television.

It is illegal under Iran’s constitution to give military bases to foreign armies.

 

[robert99]

Starvation is just around the corner - http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...ppo-truce-UN-wants-other-sides-to-commit.html
Russia has agreed to a 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo to allow aid deliveries, but security guarantees are awaited from other parties on the ground, UN officials said on Thursday.

The United Nations has pushed for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to alleviate suffering for about 2 million people, but major powers back opposing sides in Syria’s five-year-old civil war, complicating its implementation.

The UN relief plan for Aleppo entails simultaneous deliveries of food to the rebel-held east and government-controlled west, Egeland said.

Civilians in other encircled towns were also malnourished, Egeland said, singling out rebel-besieged Foua and Kefraya in Idlib and government-besieged Madaya near Damascus, which have not had UN food deliveries in 116 days.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/per...eppo-exposes-limits-of-Russian-air-power.html
Russia’s politically-sensitive and ultimately fruitless decision to launch bombing missions on Syria from Iranian soil has exposed the limits to its air power, leaving Moscow in need of a new strategy to advance its aims.

People familiar with Russia’s military said Moscow opted for the sorties from Iran - and Tehran agreed to allow them - because they were struggling to achieve their aim of crushing rebels in the city of Aleppo.

During the intensified bombing, the rebel forces in Aleppo even counter-attacked in the middle of this month, breaking the siege and restoring access to supply routes.

According to defense experts, Russia does have the military capacity to intensify its bombing in Syria further, whether or not it has access to the Iranian base.

But that would mean more expense for Russia, which is struggling to fill gaps in its budget, faces a parliamentary election next month, and has seen the Syrian operation drag on far past the Kremlin’s original timetable.

In May, President Vladimir Putin announced that “the main part” of Russian armed forces in Syria would start to withdraw, saying that their work had “on the whole, been fulfilled”. But still the bombing went on.

The difficulty of making progress militarily will make a negotiated solution more attractive to the Kremlin.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/040920162
Syrian forces advance near Aleppo, new siege feared
Syrian regime forces advanced near Aleppo on Sunday, taking over positions in the city and aiming to surround rebel neighborhoods and reimpose a siege.

"The Syrian army, supported by allied forces, has total control of the armaments academy and expanded the territory it controls in the military academies zone," Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.

AFP reported heavy air bombing south of the city, where three military schools are located and the zone has seen intense fighting.

Government forces have already recaptured the air force academy and rebels "are now besieged in the artillery academy," AFP quoted a military source as saying.
(Not good news for civilians in Aleppo)

 

[robert99]

Syria conflict: Government helicopters 'drop chlorine' on Aleppo - BBC News
Syrian government forces have been accused of dropping barrel bombs containing chlorine from helicopters on a suburb of Aleppo, injuring 80 people.

Volunteer emergency workers say people suffered breathing difficulties after an attack on the Sukkari area.

The reports could not be independently verified. A UN-led inquiry concluded last month the that government had used chlorine on at least two occasions.