FROM above, the lines dividing regime forces from rebel ones in Aleppo look like a yin and yang icon. Locked in a hostile embrace since fighting erupted in July 2012 in what was once Syria’s largest and most economically vibrant city, the warring sides arc round each other, splitting it in half. Supplied via narrow access roads, the rebels hold the east and the regime the west. Shopkeepers who once competed over prices now fight to choke their rivals’ vulnerable supply lines.
After an interlude earlier this year that world powers hailed as a ceasefire but fighters read as a lull to rest and restock, the battle has resumed with a vengeance. From hilltop positions north of Aleppo, the regime has sent wave after wave of soldiers to take or destroy Castello Road, the western ring-road which is the rebels’ last highway out of the city. From their farm hideout south of the city, al-Qaeda’s affiliate, the Jabhat al-Nusra, leads rebel attacks on regime tanks patrolling their road in.
Left alone neither can overcome the other. In a city which once held 2m, the UN estimates 1.1m cling on in the regime’s west, and around a quarter of...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/29fpirx
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