Syrian rebels start campaign to capture full control of Aleppo

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian insurgents say they have begun a campaign to capture full control of the divided city of Aleppo, Syria's most populous city before it become a main battleground in its four-year-old civil war, Reuters reports.

Neither side has been able to control Syria's main commercial hub, 50 km from Turkey, since battle erupted there in 2012, turning its UNESCO-listed historic center into a ruin.

The prospect of a rebel offensive in the city is a stark sign of the turn of momentum against President Bashar al-Assad's government, which has lost swathes of territory to fighters in recent months in the northwest, east and south of the country.

Just four months ago it was the army and its allied militia that were launching a major bid to besiege rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo. Now, rebels are claiming the initiative.

"The big battle of Aleppo you can say has started in its preparatory phases," said Yasser Abdul Rahim, a rebel commander who directs a joint operations room set up in April to capture government-held Aleppo.

"There is a decisive final blow coming that will expel the regime from Aleppo and to liberate the city completely," said Abdul Rahim, a member of the Nour al Din al Zinki rebel group that has been a recipient of foreign support. He was speaking to an opposition-affiliated TV station, Halab Today.

The city's fall would be a major blow for Assad, restricting his control mainly to a belt of territory stretching north from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast. This would deepen Syria's de facto partition between the Assad-run west and other areas held by a patchwork of armed groups.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, said rebels had captured some ground in government-held districts in the city and to the north of it.

"They are now trying to mobilize around Aleppo, but until now they haven't made big progress," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory.

An alliance of rebels including recipients of Western aid fighting under the name Free Syrian Army made a small but notable advance into a government-held part of Aleppo this week.

The army says it beat back the foray into the Rashidin district - the first rebel advance into the heart of Aleppo's government-controlled residential area in more than two years.

Insurgents have also been bombarding government-held areas previously unaccustomed to the level of destruction inflicted on insurgent-held parts of the city.

More than 30 people were killed in an insurgent bombardment this week, the single most lethal rebel attack of its type there since the war began, according to the Observatory.

Government officials say they are still confident. A government military source said the insurgents had in recent months received artillery capable of destroying buildings, but still lacked the capability "to do something of strategic importance in Aleppo .... because the army is prepared."

But as government forces and the militia fighting alongside them lose ground elsewhere, diplomats see the fall of Aleppo as a real possibility. One said it would "not be a big surprise".