Rebel Offensive in Syria Challenges Government Siege of Aleppo

Syria conflict: Senior militant leader 'killed' near Aleppo - BBC News
A senior commander of the Syrian militant group formerly known as al-Nusra Front has been killed near Aleppo, rebel sources say.

The group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham said on its Twitter account that commander Abu Omar Sarakeb died in an air strike in Aleppo province.
PressTV-Syria dismisses gas attack allegations
Syria has strongly dismissed allegations that government forces used poisonous gas against a militant-held area in the strategic northwestern city of Aleppo, stating that the Damascus government is ready to cooperate with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) over the claims.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry, blamed terrorist groups and their sponsors for criminal activities in the crisis-stricken Arab country, arguing that such allegations are merely meant to undermine recent advances by the Syrian army.
PressTV-Syria army liberates key district in Aleppo
Syrian army forces and allied fighters have regained control of a key district in Aleppo as efforts continue to purge the flashpoint northern city of Takfiri militants.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which advocates foreign-backed militants, said Thursday that Syrian soldiers managed to enter Ramouseh District, located south of Aleppo, advancing towards other militant-held areas east of the city.

Ramouseh was liberated after “ferocious clashes,” said the London-based group in a statement, adding, however, that the militants still held marginal positions in a residential complex and a school.

(seems like Turkey's entry into Syria has released resources for Assad to retake Aleppo)
 
Syrian conflict: US and Russia agree peace moves - BBC News
Russia and the US have announced an agreement on Syria starting with a "cessation of hostilities" from sunset on Monday.

Under the plan, the Syrian government will end combat missions in specified areas held by the opposition.

Russia and the US will establish a joint centre to combat so-called Islamic State and al-Nusra fighters.

The announcement follows talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

"The cessation of hostilities requires access to all besieged and hard-to-reach areas, including Aleppo", Mr Kerry said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/world/middleeast/syria-john-kerry-ceasefire-deal-russia.html
The agreement was reached after 10 months of failed attempts to halt the fighting and of suspended efforts to reach a political settlement to an increasingly complex conflict that began more than five years ago.

The conflict has left nearly half a million people dead, created the largest refugee crisis since World War II and turned Syria into a prime incubator of recruiting for the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda.

It came at a time when relations between the United States and Russia, which have worsened throughout much of the Obama administration, have been especially jolted by accusations of Russian hacking and subterfuge in American politics. The tensions have been further exacerbated by the effusive praise for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.

The new arrangement on Syria, set to begin Monday, was greeted with skepticism by Syrians on all sides and carries many risks of failure, which the Pentagon and Mr. Kerry acknowledged. “No one is basing this on trust,” he said. “We are basing it on oversight and compliance.”

American officials expressed strong reservations about whether this new arrangement would work. Especially skeptical was the Pentagon, long suspicious of Russian intentions in Syria, since the Kremlin first deployed military forces there to help Mr. Assad a year ago.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was among Obama administration officials who raised questions over whether either Russia or the Assad government would comply with the terms.
(No one thinks this will hold ... :( )
 
Syria conflict: Bombs rain down as truce hopes rise - BBC News
Air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria reportedly killed at least 82 people hours after the US and Russia announced plans for a truce.

An air strike on a market in Idlib killed at least 37 people while at least 45 died in strikes on Aleppo province, opposition activists say.

A 10-day truce is meant to start on Monday, followed by co-ordinated air strikes against jihadist militants.

A spokeswoman for Syria's opposition said the plan provided some hope but more details were needed about how it would be enforced.

In the capital, Damascus, the government endorsed the deal, the state news agency Sana reported.

There has been no official reaction from Iran which, like Russia, is allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Getting a deal was an achievement, given the sour atmosphere between Moscow and Washington. It offers some fragile hope about stopping the slaughter.

But there is scepticism about its chances. That is because a lot is going to have to go right, quite quickly, if the agreement is to work. One necessity is President Assad's consent. A week-long ceasefire might be possible, but a political deal to end the war is still out of sight.

The Assad regime's survival depends on the Russians, so he will listen to them. But with Russia's help, the Assad regime is looking more robust. So it is hard to see why the president, or his Russian allies, would want him to go.
 
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PressTV-'Iran welcomes Syria truce deal'
Iran has welcomed a Russia-US mediated ceasefire agreement in Syria aimed at putting an end to more than five years of deadly conflict gripping the Arab country.
PressTV-Hezbollah backs Aleppo ceasefire deal
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has voiced support for a ceasefire plan announced by Russia and the United States, which will put a week-long end to fighting in Syria’s embattled city of Aleppo.
 
but - PressTV-Ahrar al-Sham rejects Syria ceasefire
The Saudi-backed Ahrar al-Sham terrorist group has rejected a US-Russia brokered ceasefire just hours before its implementation.

The truce deal, negotiated by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, is set to enter into force on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice).

The rejection was announced by a top-ranking member of the group via a video statement released on YouTube on Monday. The terrorist group claims that abiding by the truce would only "reinforce" the Syrian government and "increase the suffering" of civilians.

"The people cannot accept half-solutions," said the group's deputy leader Ali al-Omar in the video.
 
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-largely-holds-aid-preparations-underway.html
A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia was mostly holding across Syria on Tuesday and efforts to deliver badly needed aid to besieged areas including the northern city of Aleppo got cautiously underway.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura was monitoring the ceasefire very closely, a spokeswoman said, but she declined to comment on how it was being observed so far.
The Syrian government said it would reject any aid deliveries to Aleppo not coordinated through itself and the United Nations, particularly from Turkey, Syrian state media reported.

The UN said its trucks had not yet entered Syria and that it was still awaiting confirmation that the ceasefire was holding before sending in its own convoy.

“We are waiting for this cessation of hostilities to actually deliver the assurances and the peace before trucks can start moving from Turkey. As I speak, that has not been the case,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in Geneva.
 
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...n-Turkish-border-as-warring-sides-bicker.html
Two convoys of aid for the Syrian city of Aleppo were waiting in no-man’s land on Wednesday after crossing the Turkish border, held up by security fears and disagreements between combatants on the third day of a ceasefire.

The convoys, each of around 20 trucks carrying mostly food and flour, set off from the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu, 40 km (25 miles) west of Aleppo, on Tuesday but made it little further than the Turkish customs post on the Syrian border.

The delay was a sign of the difficulties facing the ceasefire, brokered by the United States and Russia on Friday with the aim of reviving talks on ending Syria’s civil war.
 
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-French-militant-Diaby-global-terrorist-.html
The United States on Friday designated French militant recruiter Omar Diaby a “global terrorist” subject to US economic sanctions, the State Department said.

The 40-year-old Al-Nusra Front militant, who also uses the name Omar Omsen, became notorious last year for faking his own death in order to leave Syria for surgery.

According to the designation, Diaby leads a group of 50 French volunteers who traveled to Syria to fight for Al-Nusra Front, which says it broke ties with Al-Qaeda in July and renamed itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

“Although assumed killed in August 2015, Diaby re-emerged in May 2016, claiming his death was a ploy to allow him to travel to Turkey for an operation,” the State Department said.

“Diaby came to the attention of French intelligence due to his involvement with a French extremist group and his online propaganda video series,” it added.

“Diaby’s videos have been credited as the chief reason behind why so many French nationals have joined militant groups in Syria and Iraq.”

Diaby’s parents reported him dead last year but in May he surfaced again, giving an interview by Skype to France 2 television to explain he had traveled for surgery.

France 2 also broadcast footage of a training camp in western Syria housing around 30 young French militants, many of them from Diaby’s home region near Nice.
 
How are Aleppo's residents dealing with truce?
The neighborhoods in Aleppo controlled by the Syrian opposition have been experiencing relative calm after the 48-hour truce approved by the United States and Russia took effect Sept. 12. As US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to extend the cease-fire for another 48 hours on the night of Sept. 14, Gen. Viktor Poznikhir, the Russian army’s chief of staff, said in a press statement that Moscow supports the extension of the truce for another 48 hours.

Poznikhir described the truce as fragile and said that the fighting factions violated it 60 times in the past 48 hours. He noted that most violations were committed by Ahrar al-Sham.

It is noteworthy that the truce did not include the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, even though they are present in Idlib and in the eastern and southern countryside of Aleppo.
 
Not only over but back with a force -
Syria conflict: Aid convoy 'hit by air strike' near Aleppo - BBC News
Aid trucks have been hit by an air strike near the Syrian city of Aleppo, reports say, hours after the military declared the current cessation of violence was over.

The Syrian Red Crescent said the convoy had been making a routine delivery from Aleppo to rural rebel-held areas.

A UN spokesman said an aid convoy had been hit in Aleppo province but could not confirm it was an air strike.

UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said it was an "outrage".

The cessation agreement included deliveries of humanitarian aid for the worst hit areas, but by Monday most shipments had yet to go in.

They include a 20-lorry convoy for rebel-held eastern Aleppo where about 275,000 civilians are trapped without access to food or medical supplies.

UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O'Brien said he was "pained and disappointed" that the convoy had yet to cross into Syria from Turkey.
 
Back to square one -
Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit - BBC News
The UN has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after a devastating attack on its lorries near Aleppo on Monday.

The strikes, which witnesses say came from the air, came hours after Syria declared a week-old US-Russia brokered cessation of hostilities at an end.

The attack at Urum al-Kubra destroyed 18 of 31 lorries and killed about 20 civilians, including a senior local official of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, named as Omar Barakat.

The UN would not confirm what type of attack took place, saying "we are not in a position to determine whether these were in fact air strikes".
 
Syria war: John Kerry urges planes to be grounded - BBC News
The US Secretary of State has called for all planes to be grounded in key areas of Syria to save the truce there, following an attack on an aid convoy.

In a blistering speech at the United Nations, John Kerry said the future of Syria was "hanging by a thread".

He said Monday's attack, which killed 20 civilians, had raised profound doubt over whether Russia and the Syrian government would live up to terms of the ceasefire deal.

Moscow has denied being involved.

Mr Kerry's idea though is probably to be seen more as a declaratory policy: an attempt to get the Russians and Syrians - the only people likely to fly aircraft that might strike targets in these zones - to formally acknowledge that they will not do so.

PressTV-‘Syria truces must block terrorists' regrouping’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says militants in Syria have taken advantage of the ceasefires enforced in the crisis-hit Arab country to regroup, stressing that Syrian government forces would no more stop fighting unilaterally.

Addressing a crisis meeting on Syria at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York on Wednesday, Lavrov underlined the need for reining in militant groups on the ground to ensure they respect the truce.

He further called for a review of a list of terror groups not covered by the ceasefire in the violence-wracked state, stressing that Washington had the biggest responsibility to separate the so-called opposition forces from terrorists.
 
Syria conflict: Army declares offensive in eastern Aleppo - BBC News
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...start-of-a-new-major-offensive-in-Aleppo.html
The Syrian military has announced a new offensive in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, following the heaviest air strikes in the city for months.

Jets pounded rebel positions in the city on Wednesday night as a week-old truce collapsed. It is unclear whether the new offensive will involve ground troops.

An AFP news agency journalist reports that his entire street in the southern Bustan al-Qasr district was left burning after warplanes dropped incendiary bombs.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the director of the Observatory, described them as "the most intense strikes in months" on the two areas, with three women and three children among the dead.

The Aleppo Media Centre said the fires had been caused by "incendiary phosphorus bombs". Video footage posted by it and another pro-opposition activist group, Thiqa, showed intense blazes lighting up the night sky.

(The Syrian Military is going to raze to the ground Eastern Aleppo and there's nothing the US or it's allies can do about it.
Even Assad has gone out to rub the Americans noses in it - http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/09/22/485860/President-Assad-US-airstrikes-Syrian-army )
 
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/22092016
Moscow’s official RT news website reported that the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will join the Russian naval group in the eastern Mediterranean, quoting defense ministry officials as saying it will be used to “aid the anti-terrorist mission in Syria.”
The minister added that the deployment is part of the Russian naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, renewed in 2013, which ensures the country’s interests and helps “to maintain peace.”

According to a source cited by Interfax, the Admiral Kuznetsov will join the country’s naval unit in mid-October, with the mission expected to last between four and five months.
(The Iranians stopped the Russians using an air base in Iran so this is a logical move)
 
Syria conflict: US-Russia plans 'must be saved' - Lavrov - BBC News
Mr Lavrov also spoke of a "bleeding Middle East and North Africa", the result of "arrogant attitudes and feelings of infallibility in pushing unilateral and reckless solutions".

Aleppo has endured a day of devastating air strikes with at least 45 civilians killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring body said.

But the head of a hospital in the rebel-held east told Reuters that 91 people had been killed in Friday's bombardment.

In between the raids, White Helmet volunteers frantically searched for those trapped in the rubble of demolished buildings, often with bare hands.

Ammar al-Selmo, the head of civil defence in eastern Aleppo, told Reuters that at least 40 buildings had been destroyed.

Activists said both Syrian and Russian warplanes were taking part in the offensive, though Russia has not confirmed its involvement.

Announcing the new offensive on state television late on Thursday, the Syrian government warned Aleppo residents to "stay away" from "terrorist positions".

Syrian military sources said a ground offensive would follow.
(This might well be a bloodbath of Biblical proportions - hope not)
 
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...eld-Aleppo-as-Syria-army-begins-assault-.html
Ammar al Selmo, the head of the Civil Defense, said the rescuers themselves were targeted, with three of their four centers in Aleppo hit.

"What's happening now is annihilation in every sense of the word," he told Reuters. "Today the bombardment is more violent, with a larger number of planes."

The bombing came after the Syrian army announced overnight that it was launching an operation to recapture the rebel-held sector of the city. Western diplomats fear a bloodbath if the government unleashes a full-blown assault to capture the besieged opposition-held zone, where 250,000 civilians are still trapped.

"The only way to take eastern Aleppo is by such a monstrous atrocity that it would resonate for generations. It would be the stuff of history," one Western diplomat said.
PressTV-Russia says prevented Syria disintegration
According to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.
(The Russians have been dragging their feet all the time with the ceasefire. To expect the US to control groups that the US is fighting in Syria is ridiculous, and it's the Syrians/Russians who have broken the ceasefire. Assad does not want a ceasefire now with Turkey fighting "terrorists" in the North and the US in the East, Syrian/Russian/Iranian military can clear out Aleppo of opposition,)
 
Syria conflict: Air strikes leave Aleppo 'without water' - BBC News
Unicef spokesman Kieran Dwyer said the lack of running water could be "catastrophic" as residents now had to resort to contaminated water and were at risk from waterborne diseases.

He said water was being used as a weapon of war by all sides. The pumping station supplying rebel-held parts of Aleppo was damaged on Thursday and subsequent strikes had made repairs impossible, Mr Dwyer told the BBC.

"That pumping station pumps water to the entire population of the eastern part of city - that's at least 200,000 people and then in retaliation for that attack a nearby pumping station that pumps water to the entire western part of the city - upwards to 1.5 million people - was deliberately switched off," he told the BBC.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group monitoring the conflict, said 25 people had been killed in fresh bombardments on Saturday.

On Saturday government troops were reported to have captured the rebel stronghold of Handarat to the north of Aleppo, further tightening their grip on the city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/world/middleeast/aleppo-syria-airstrikes.html
“It is the worst day that we’ve had for a very long time,” said James Le Mesurier, the head of Mayday Rescue, which trains Syrian rescue workers. “They are calling it Dresden-esque.”

The Syrian government announced the new offensive in its state-controlled news media, quoting an unidentified Syrian military official who described the Aleppo operation as “comprehensive” and said it could continue for some time. The official said the operation would “include a ground offensive.”

That appeared unlikely, as many analysts have said that the Syrian military does not have the manpower to seize and hold significant territory. Its air force, however, has been able to pummel rebel-held areas with relative impunity.
 

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