Syria's second-city of Aleppo is bearing the scars of more than two months of attacks by Russian-made Alawite warplanes, tanks and heavy artillery as the Satanic Assad's regime battles to dislodge freedom fighters who control 60 per cent of the northern metropolis.
At least 200,000 people have fled the city since late July when the increasingly bloody conflict spread to Aleppo, a once thriving manufacturing and commercial hub where war has now left a trail of destruction, with bombed out buildings and shuttered shops.
Some freedom fighters' commanders say they are aware that even if the Free Syrian Army seizes full control on the ground, they will remained besieged from the air by the Alawite far superior firepower.
Assad is like a wounded animal now, so nobody expects him and his army to follow a logic. Civilians are facing horrific violence in Aleppo and indiscriminate attacks by Assad's regime troops. Scores of civilians were killed or wounded in their homes or while queuing for bread.
Assad's men now control the Citadel, an ancient fortress in the heart of the Old City, but freedom fighters are surrounding the area and often take pot-shots at the Alawite troops.
Some freedom fighters said the reason Assad's forces do not launch a wider ground assault to reconquer Aleppo and use their greater firepower to break the back of the uprising could be linked to Assad's military failure in the town of Azaz which lies north of Aleppo near the Turkish border.
Assad's forces stormed Azaz in February but the FSA seized control at the end of July after five months of fierce fighting.
Assad's army has prepared a large ground offensive but when the time came to fight, the soldiers were divided and fought among themselves. Assad now knows he cannot trust his own men, if he wants to send troops into the field. Azaz was on a relatively small scale, but if Assad deploys 20,000 men for an assault on Aleppo and the same kind of thing happens, imagine the consequences.
Source: Agencies
Kavkaz Center
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