Allepo braces for years of siege by Assad regime
New recruits take part in a shooting training session on February 16, 2016 at a camp in a rebel-held area of the northern city of Aleppo before fighting along with opposition fighters. The bastion of the Syrian rebellion, being besieged and shelled by aviation, stores weapons and supplies to hold as long as possible. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
Those who remain are stockpiling arms and supplies — bracing for their redoubt to be blockaded by the regime.
The army of President Bashar al-Assad began large-scale offensives against Aleppo rebels in February, backed by an intense campaign of Russian air strikes.
One city keeps popping up in conversations: Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
The city was destroyed by Moscow in the 1990s during the Chechen wars.
ALEPPO, Saturday
A single road, like a fragile umbilical cord, connects rebel areas of Syria’s second city Aleppo with international relief from Turkey.
Those who remain are stockpiling arms and supplies — bracing for their redoubt to be blockaded by the regime.
In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, charities are preparing to send aid south of the border to a Syrian city where 250,000 to 300,000 people are holed despite the relentless violence, too poor to escape or too invested in the outcome of the fighting to run away.
“The siege by regime forces is not yet a done deal,” said Assad Al-Ashi, head of the NGO Baytna Syria, adding that one road to Aleppo’s west remained open.
He said the road could be cut off at any moment as it was under fire from all sides.
“Syrian humanitarian organisations — there are around 100 on the ground — are stockpiling everything they can inside the city,” he said.
“In the event of a total siege, Aleppo could last for a year, probably more.”
OFFENSIVES
The army of President Bashar al-Assad began large-scale offensives against Aleppo rebels in February, backed by an intense campaign of Russian air strikes.
Bombardment by bombardment, strike by strike, fears that the city faces complete encirclement have taken hold, with thousands displaced.
Insurgents can still reach the other rebel stronghold of Idlib in the northwest. From there, the Aleppo fighters have stockpiled hundreds — perhaps even thousands — of tonnes of weapons and provisions like flour, oil, sugar and drugs.
The siege of the southern city of Homs — where the rebels held out for three years before finally surrendering — provides a grim example of what Aleppo could face.
“Aleppo won’t be like that,” said Manhal Bareesh of the Syrian opposition.
“The rebel zones are much larger and better defended. They are building trenches and tunnels so they can move around. The siege will never be watertight.”
Hospitals, often targeted by air strikes to demoralise civilians and fighters, have been moved to basements, as have schools.
“Doctors who had to leave, left. Those who stayed know what’s coming and are willing. It is their choice,” he said.
ALLEPO'S FATE
One city keeps popping up in conversations: Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
The city was destroyed by Moscow in the 1990s during the Chechen wars.
“Right now, everything depends on Russia,” Ashi said of Assad’s key ally.
“Bashar is ready to destroy everything if necessary to secure a victory in Aleppo. But he doesn’t have the means, nor the soldiers. You’d have to obliterate it, like Grozny. Will the Russians agree to that?”
Ashi said he expected the front to remain open “for 20 or 30 years”, adding that the Turks would help.
Red Cross said it was alarmed by the situation.
And after an exodus of refugees now stuck at the border, Amnesty International criticised Turkey for refusing entry to injured civilians fleeing the fighting, describing its policy as appalling.
Bareesh said he believed Russia would continue its strikes, even to the point of Grozny-level destruction.
“If the UN, the US and the rest of the world look away, there is no hope,” he added.
Meanwhile, Western powers have rejected a Russian bid at the UN to halt Turkey’s military actions in Syria, as France warns of a dangerous escalation in the five-year conflict.
The emergency Security Council meeting came as US Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned that there was a lot more work to do for a ceasefire to take hold in Syria, following talks in Geneva between American and Russian officials.
In a related development, President Barack Obama, in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged the Ankara government and Kurdish YPG forces to show restraint in Syria.
The elusive truce was meant to begin on Friday but failed to materialise as fighting raged in Syria with Kurdish-led forces backed by US-led air power seizing a key town from the Islamic State group.
Russia, which has been carrying out air strikes in support of Bashar al-Assad’s forces, has urged the UN to press Turkey to halt its shelling of Kurdish forces.
