BEIRUT // Syrian rebels launched an offensive aimed at breaking the government’s siege of eastern Aleppo on Sunday, where the United Nations estimates some 300,000 people are trapped with dwindling food and medical supplies.
As the powerful, ultraconservative Ahrar Al Sham faction announced the rebels’ campaign, residents in the northern city’s besieged opposition quarters burnt tyres to reduce visibility for fighter jets flying overhead, according to local activist Wissam Zarqa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition monitor, said rebels and pro-government forces were clashing along several fronts on the outskirts of the divided city.
Presumed Russian or government jets bombed rebel-held neighbourhoods in the eastern side of the city, the Observatory said. Earlier in the day, helicopters had dropped unguided barrel bombs on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Bustan Al Basha, it said.
Government forces closed off the last route to opposition-controlled areas of the city in early July, replicating siege tactics that it has employed with mixed results throughout the war. Opposition neighbourhoods in Homs, the country’s third largest city, surrendered to government control in 2014 after a two-year siege left residents at the brink of starvation. Other sieges have lasted until today, with devastating humanitarian consequences.
The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, warned on Friday that basic supplies in eastern Aleppo could run out in three weeks.
The Syrian and Russian militaries announced safe corridors for residents who wanted to leave the besieged area on Thursday, but according to the Russian government, only 169 civilians had left by Saturday. Several rights groups have warned it is illegal to deprive civilians of basic necessities, and that residents should not have to choose between leaving their homes or starving.
Meanwhile in southern Syria, an air raid on a hospital in an opposition-controlled town put the facility out of service on Sunday.
The hospital in Jasem was targeted in one of several air strikes to hit the town in Deraa province, located some 35 miles south of Damascus, according to the Local Coordination Committees opposition activist network. The group said six people were killed in the strikes, blaming them on the government.
The Observatory also said a strike had put the hospital out of service and that a pharmacist had been killed.
* Agence France-Presse
