Fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has killed dozens of civilians over the past weekend. The recent battle, waged by al-Assad’s government and backed by Russian jets and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, was meant to encircle the rebel-held east of the city to quell the rebellion. Moderate rebels, with the help of jihadists, including the Levant Conquest Front, originally named the Al-Nusra Front, had earlier managed to break the government’s siege. By Sunday 7th August, the rebels had indeed seized a government artillery school and opened a road to the eastern parts of the city, but the road remained too dangerous for the departure of civilians according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Aleppo is Syria’s most populous city and was its industrial center before the war. It has become the conflict’s latest high-stakes battleground. Whoever claims control over the city gains a strategic advantage in the war. It has been divided into two parts since 2012, with al-Assad’s government holding power in the western area and the rebels controlling eastern districts and the country side. The level of life in the western part, which is not subject to airstrikes, is higher, but public and basic services like water, food, and electricity are still lacking.
In this last offensive, the government’s forces were backed by Russian power and targeted civilian areas, including apartment buildings, hospitals, and clinics. There is also an on-going investigation that is being led by the United Nations (UN) as to whether the government used chemical weapons, which in this case is chlorine gas.
The biggest victims of this battle are civilians. Last weekend alone, 46 civilians were killed according to the SOHR, making the civilian death toll of the past two weeks in Aleppo’s Province to rise to at least 327. 233 civilians were killed inside Aleppo, 102 of them in opposition areas, and 126 in the government’s area. The Observatory did not mention where the five others were killed. Most people in eastern areas are killed by airstrikes, whereas civilians in the western parts of the city are killed by shellings.
At the same time as fighting rages in the city, it has damaged its infrastructure, leaving two million residents without clean running water, according to the UN. “Devastating and overwhelming.” This is how the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Marianne Gasser, who was in the Syrian city recently, described the conditions in Aleppo before the problems concerning water.
With Russia beginning to use the Iranian air base of Hamadan in the northwest of the country to fight the Islamic State and other groups supporting militants battling in Aleppo, and launching, for the first time, cruise missiles from warships in the Mediterranean Sea, it is likely that the fighting will intensify and that al-Assad’s government will have the upper-hand in Aleppo’s battle. The Tu-22M3 bombers currently used in the Iranian base, too heavy for the air base Russia has established in Syria, had been flying missions directly from Russia. Thanks to the new base, their trip will be 1,000 miles shorter according to Russian officials, and the bombers will be able to carry much more explosives, thus providing much more flexibility and striking power to Russia’s deployed military force.
References:
- Hwaida Saad, and Rod Nordland. “Fighting Rages in Aleppo, Syria, Killing Dozens of Civilians.” The New York Times. 14 Aug. 2016. Web. 17 Aug. 2016. <//www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/middleeast/aleppo-syria-civilians-killed.html> ;
- Ben Hubbard. « In Syria, Battles for Aleppo Seem as Endless as the War Itself. » The New York Times. 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 17 Aug. 2016. <//www.nytimes.com/2016/08/13/world/middleeast/syria-aleppo.html>;
- « Three Reasons Why Russia Deployed Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers to Iran. » Sputnik News. 17 Aug. 2016. Web. 17 Aug. 2016. <//sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160817/1044348934/russia-tu-22M3-iran.html>;
- « Syrie : 2 millions de personnes privées d’eau courante alors que les combats s’intensifient à Alep ». UNICEF. 9 Aug. 2016. Web. 17 Aug. 2016. <https://www.unicef.fr/contenu/espace-medias/syrie-2-millions-de-personnes-privees-d-eau-courante-alors-que-les-combats-s-intensifient-alep>;
- « Situation in Aleppo « devastating and overwhelming » says ICRC’s most senior official in Syria. » International Committee of the Red Cross. 21 July 2016. Web. 17 Aug. 2016. <https://www.icrc.org/en/document/situation-aleppo-devastating-and-overwhelming-says-icrcs-most-senior-official-syria>.
