ALJAZEERA: A growing chorus of alarm has warned the Obama administration that its strategy to combat Islamic State forces in Syria is on the verge of unraveling in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. But with regime forces now in control of all but one road into Aleppo, the remaining residents of areas controlled by the rebels designated “moderate” by the U.S. are bracing for the worst…
Forces fighting for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have taken advantage of the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL) targets elsewhere in Syria to press their offensive in Aleppo and are now within firing range of Castello Road, the rebels’ last remaining supply route. “They can close it whenever they like,” Erhaim said, speaking by phone. “Maybe they’re still opening it for those who want to escape, before applying the siege.”
Aleppo is the most significant real estate to fall into rebel hands in the course of Syria’s three-year civil war, and the rebel sectors are under the control of forces designated as the Syrian partners vital to the U.S. campaign there. Earlier this year, fighters from three rebel alliances successfully forced ISIL to the periphery of the city while holding off the regime army. But the threat of a regime encirclement of the city represents a turning point in the multipolar fight in Syria among rival rebel factions, Assad’s forces, the Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al-Nusra (the Nusra Front) and ISIL — a fight in which the rebel forces designated as potential partners by the West are rapidly being eclipsed. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned earlier this week that the “moderate” rebels are at risk of being obliterated if they lose their Aleppo foothold… (more)
