Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have captured a key section of rebel-held Aleppo with the backing of Russia, Iran, and the terrorist group Hezbollah, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Syrian forces now control some 40 percent of the rebel-held eastern portion of the city, while Syrian and allied troops have captured twelve neighborhoods and more than 3,000 buildings in recent days, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. More than 100 rebels have reportedly surrendered and been evacuated from Aleppo, whose residents were sent fleeing in the thousands.
Rebels have held portions of the city since 2012, and losing control of the territory would mark a “turning point” in the Syrian uprising against Assad, the AP noted. Syrian government forces have received significant support in their campaign from Russian air strikes, which have destroyed numerous neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo, as well as from thousands of Hezbollah troops and other Shiite militias hailing from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
If Assad’s forces capture Aleppo, they would be in control of Syria’s four largest cities and its coastal region.
Ahmad Araj, a senior official with the Syrian National Democratic Coalition, which includes Arab and Kurdish opposition forces, said that 8,000 residents of Aleppo had fled to the city’s Kurdish-controlled neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud and were in need of international aid.
According to the Syrian army’s media arm, Assad’s troops now control nearly 8 square miles of eastern Aleppo, which totals 17 square miles.
“It is stinging cold, food is scarce and people are shaken in the streets,” Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council in Aleppo, wrote in a text message to the AP. He added that while thousands of civilians have fled to areas under government or Kurdish control, some have stayed behind to avoid the risk of being captured by Assad’s forces.
Iran and Hezbollah have assumed commanding roles on the battlefield to prop up the Syrian regime, which has targeted civilians through the use of barrel bombs, massacres, intentional starvation, and chemical weapon attacks. These tactics have led to the death of over 400,000 people and the world’s largest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
Former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter said earlier this month that Iran commands a “foreign legion” made up of some 25,000 Shiite fighters in Syria. His assessment is consistent with other reports about Iran’s growing military footprint in the Middle East. Iran’s recent formation of a Shiite “Liberation Army” has raised fears among observers that Tehran “is asserting itself as a regional or even an imperialistic power,” according to Tallha Abdulrazaq, a researcher at the University of Exeter. In 2014, an Iranian official close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei bragged that the Islamic Republic controlled the capitals of four Arab countries: Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon.
[Photo: PressTV ]