Syrian military gaining control in east Aleppo
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THE Syrian military said yesterday it had gained control of 98 percent of eastern Aleppo, previously a rebel-held enclave, reducing the rebel territory to a small sliver packed with civilians and fighters under fire.
A Syrian rebel spokesman said opposition fighters are retreating in eastern Aleppo under intense government fire that is putting thousands of civilians at risk, calling the collapse “terrifying.”
The military statement came hours after Syrian forces, aided by Shiite militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, took Sheik Saeed, one of the largest neighborhoods in the southern part of the rebel territory, tightening the noose on the enclave.
The military also said its multi-pronged ground push yesterday captured the al-Fardous neighborhood, one of the most populated districts to the north of Sheik Saeed.
Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the district remains under fire. He estimated that about 7 percent of the enclave remains under rebel control.
“The situation is very, very critical,” said Ibrahim al-Haj, a member of the Syrian Civil Defense. “The military took many areas and we are now squeezed.” Al-Haj had been on the move to find a place to keep him and his family away from the clashes and possible government capture.
Bassam Haj Mustafa, a senior member of the rebel Nour el-Din el-Zinki group who is in contact with fighters inside the city, said the fighters are doing “their best to defend what is left.” In a message to reporters, he said: “The collapse is terrifying.”
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled to government-held western Aleppo since the offensive began last month. But tens of thousands remain trapped.
A rebel fighter from inside Aleppo said the fall of Sheik Saeed means the fall of the enclave’s only mill and grains warehouse, cutting off access to bread or flour.
Most of the remaining civilians are now in two or three neighborhoods, packing thousands in a small space and threatening large casualty tolls in any new attack, he said.
In a map distributed by the military’s media arm, a small sliver of land, a long rectangular shape in the city center abutting the western, government-held parts of the city, remained in rebel hands. It includes six neighborhoods, most of them still areas where fighting is still underway.
A Turkey-based Syrian organization that supported medical facilities and agricultural projects in Aleppo said it was terminating all its activities in the besieged enclave because all its eight ambulances had been destroyed. The Shafak organization said 47 of its 57 staff are stuck in areas still under rebel control and that it has lost communication with most of them.
The group ran a UN-funded primary health care facility in al-Fardous before it was captured by the government, along with Shafak’s warehouses elsewhere in eastern Aleppo that stored fuel and medical supplies.
Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes and militias from across the region launched a wide-scale offensive on east Aleppo last month and are on the verge of driving the rebels from the city.
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