Over 6,000 jihadists block the Syrian Army in southern Aleppo

[Bleipriester]

Who grows those terrorists?

"The head of the Russian Reconciliation Center reported on Monday that the jihadist rebels have built up a force of 6,000+ fighters to block the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) advance in the southern Aleppo countryside."

Over 6,000 jihadists block the Syrian Army in southern Aleppo: Russia

 

[waltky]

Humanitarian exit corridors allowed for Aleppo population...

Syria conflict: 'Exit corridors' to open for Aleppo, says Russia
Thu, 28 Jul 2016 - Corridors are to be opened to allow civilians and rebels to leave besieged areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo, Russia says.

Three routes would be opened and a fourth for armed rebels, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said. Syria's president has also offered an amnesty for rebels laying down arms and surrendering within three months. Government forces have encircled Aleppo, cutting off rebel-held areas and severing all supply routes. The offensive has been aided by Russian air power. Rebel forces fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad have held eastern parts of the city for the past four years. The UN has warned of a critical situation for about 300,000 people still there.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said on Monday that "food supplies are expected to run out in mid-August and many medical facilities continue to be attacked". Mr Shoigu described the corridors as a "large-scale humanitarian operation". He said the move was "first and foremost to ensure the safety of Aleppo residents". The three corridors for civilians and unarmed fighters would have medical posts and food handouts, Mr Shoigu said, adding that he would welcome the co-operation of international aid organisations. The fourth, in the direction of Castello Road, would be for armed militants, although Mr Shoigu complained that the US had not supplied information about how the rebel Free Syrian Army units it supports had separated from jihadist al-Nusra fighters.

Reports on Thursday said that government forces had taken control of more areas of the city, in the Bani Zeid neighbourhood. Mr Assad's amnesty offer came in a decree issued on Thursday, the state-run Sana news agency reported. "Everyone carrying arms... and sought by justice... is excluded from full punishment if they hand themselves in and lay down their weapons," it quoted the decree as saying. There have been several presidential amnesty offers in recent years.

Offer met with distrust - BBC's Caroline Hawley

Throughout the five years of Syria's war, aid agencies have pleaded for humanitarian access - usually in vain. Only under intense international pressure has the regime allowed a limited number of aid convoys to reach areas under siege. But now, with the rebels surrounded in Aleppo, the Syrian government may feel it can afford to appear magnanimous. The announcement has taken many by surprise but may be modelled on a ceasefire agreement last year in Homs. That deal allowed starving rebels to leave, ceding control of the city to the government. Winning back Aleppo - Syria's biggest city - would be a huge prize for the government. But so far there are no signs of fighters leaving the city. Rebels and civilians alike have reacted to the initiative with intense distrust.

Last week US Secretary of State John Kerry held marathon talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. They agreed "concrete steps" on tackling jihadists in Syria and on trying to reach an effective ceasefire, although proposals have not been made public. More than 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011.

Syria conflict: 'Exit corridors' to open for Aleppo, says Russia - BBC News

See also:

Aleppo: Is besieged Syrian city facing last gasp?
22 July 2016 - Syria's civil war came late to Aleppo. It was July 2012. But after four years of bitter bloodshed between its government-held west and rebel east, the beating heart of Syria's commercial and industrial capital has entered cardiac arrest.

The Castello Road, last rebel artery north towards the Turkish border, has been choked off by President Bashar al-Assad's forces backed by Russian air support, Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian militia. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last month declared Syria's "real, strategic, greatest battle is in Aleppo and the surrounding area." Aleppo is no stranger to sieges - there have been at least eight recorded across its turbulent history. But this one promises to last longer than all the others put together.

Man walks through rubble in Aleppo​

Many of the 300,000-plus unfortunates trapped inside face the prospect of slowly starving as extortionately-priced food, medicine and fuel supplies are systematically blocked. Some will die before then from the Syrian and Russian government barrel-bombing. Latterly supplemented by incendiary cluster munitions burning to 2,500C, the bombers are steadily eradicating schools, hospitals and markets from above with impunity. Months of such punishment lie ahead for Aleppo, as the stage is prepared for the Syrian endgame - a game the rebels look doomed to lose, along with their entire anti-Assad revolution.


Broken promises

Aleppo's dramas have gone largely unnoticed by Europe and the West, preoccupied with their own dramas closer to home - the Nice attacks, the US shootings, the Turkish coup attempt, the Brexit fallout. Last week, a report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) accusing the Syrian government of failing to declare its stocks of sarin and other illegal warfare agents for the Russian-brokered 2013 chemical weapons deal, raised barely a murmur in the Western media. Syria's moderate opposition groups have suffered years of broken promises of support from the international community. Myriad proclamations of "Assad must go" were followed by handwringing from the sidelines. But even the rebels were not prepared for the latest twist that took place in Moscow a few days ago; when John Kerry agreed with Sergei Lavrov to coordinate US-Russian military strikes on the so-called Islamic State (IS) and Syria's al-Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.

Nusra's aim has always been to set up Islamic emirates inside Syria, an ideology at odds with Syria's Free Syrian Army (FSA)-linked moderate opposition, yet the two have often found themselves allies of convenience in the fight against President Assad. The dynamics of the battlefield are such that, were Nusra to withdraw their military support or be targeted, the FSA rebels would be left even more vulnerable to attack. North of Aleppo they are already battling on three fronts - against IS, the Kurds and the Syrian government. In Aleppo itself there is no IS presence and very little Nusra either - yet civilians on the ground do not trust the bombs will stop simply because of the new US-Russian deal.

Destabilising factors

 

[Bleipriester]

This info and more can already be found here:
Report: Aleppo terrorists entirely encircled

 

[waltky]

UN tellin' Russia to keep their nose out of it...

UN Syria envoy tells Russia: Leave Aleppo corridors 'to us'
Jul 29,`16) -- The U.N. special envoy for Syria on Friday urged Russia to leave the creation of humanitarian corridors around Aleppo to the United Nations and its partners, issuing a gentle snub to Moscow, which had made the proposal a day earlier as pro-government troops tightened their encirclement of rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city.

Rights groups and civilians trapped in opposition-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo reacted critically to Russia's plan, saying it does not guarantee safe passage or give residents a choice of where they flee to. Some residents fear the proposed corridors are intended to restore government control over parts of the city that have been in rebel hands since 2012. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said he was not consulted on the proposal, which was first announced Thursday by the Russian defense ministry. "That's our job," de Mistura said of the corridors plan at a press conference in Geneva. He expressed support "in principle" for humanitarian corridors but said it must be "under the right circumstances." "How do you expect people to walk through a corridor - thousands of them - while there is shelling, bombing, fighting?" de Mistura said. He said he is awaiting clarification from Russian authorities about the plan, noting the urgent situation in the city, wracked by devastating violence in recent months. "The clock is ticking for the Aleppo population," he said.

The U.N. says Aleppo is now possibly the largest besieged area in Syria, with an estimated 300,000 residents trapped inside. Robert Mardini, Middle East director for the International Committee for the Red Cross, said those who choose to stay in Aleppo must be protected and that all parties must allow humanitarian agencies to reach them. "Humanitarian corridors need to be well and carefully planned, and have to be implemented with the consent of parties on all sides," Mardini said. He said he had no indication that all involved groups had agreed to the plan. With airstrikes on Aleppo continuing, the Russian proposal seems more like an effort to "depopulate Aleppo City in preparation for concerted pro-regime ground operations to force the surrender of opposition groups within the city," the Institute for the Study of War said in a brief. Late night airstrikes in the city killed at least six people, the activist-run Aleppo Media Center said Friday.

Osama Abo Elezz, a general surgeon from Aleppo who was stranded in Turkey because of the siege, said the idea of allowing people to evacuate the city "offers a service to the regime and the Russians, and forces people to go to areas they don't want to go to." He said that if the U.N. allows residents to travel safely to other opposition held-areas, this could reassure people that it is safe to leave and would reduce casualty numbers. There were no reports of civilians using the corridors on Friday. Rebel fighters were forbidding people from using the Bustan al-Qasr crossing, in the north of the city, "out of fear for their safety," according to Khaled Khatib, a volunteer for the Civil Defense search-and-rescue brigade. He said civilians who leave the city risk being shot by government snipers or being detained because of their opposition sympathies.

Also on Friday, in the neighboring province of Idlib, the charity Save the Children said a maternity hospital it supports in the opposition-held area had been hit with three airstrikes. One struck the entrance, killing two men who were waiting for their wives who were delivering, said AbdulKarim Ekzayez, health co-ordinator at Save the Children International. He said reports from the hospital suggest six or seven people were injured, though he could not yet give precise figures. A lot of equipment, including incubators for newborns, was damaged. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes in Kafr Takhareem village in Idlib hit a hospital and a center for civil defense volunteers. The group said the hospital was damaged and there were initial reports of casualties. It said the hospital was no longer operational. The Observatory said an Islamist militant was believed to have been killed in the attack. Syrian state TV said government warplanes carried out an airstrike in the same area, also claiming it killed a senior Islamist militant without naming him.

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[Kristian]

6000 jihadist warriors is power.