Syrian Regime Encircles Aleppo Under Russian Air Power

[Purveyor]

Last edited Wed Feb 3, 2016, 05:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Telegraph UK

The army has taken control of the last supply route linking opposition forces to Turkey

By Louisa Loveluck, and Roland Oliphant in Moscow
4:32PM GMT 03 Feb 2016

Syrian government forces cut rebel supply lines to Aleppo under cover of Russian air power on Wednesday, in what could be a pivotal moment in the five-year war.

After three days of intense fighting and aerial bombardment, regime forces, believed to include Iran-backed Shia militias, broke through to the formerly besieged regime enclaves of Nobul and Zahra.

In so doing, they cut rebel-held eastern Aleppo off from outside help. With regime forces to the south and west and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to the east, the part held by non-Isil rebels is now surrounded.

By nightfall, rebel forces were mounting a final stand from a mile-long patch of territory north-east of Aleppo. But local media activists aid the opposition forces were on the verge of withdrawal, facing massive bombardment from Russian and regime air strikes.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12138671/Syrian-regime-delivers-blow-to-rebels-after-cutting-supply-route-in-Aleppo.html

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U.N. halts Syria talks as government closes in on Aleppo

Wed Feb 3, 2016 4:14pm EST

A United Nations envoy halted his attempts to launch Syrian peace talks on Wednesday after the army, backed by Russian air strikes, made a major advance against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to the city.

In what rebels called a punishing assault, the government forces ended a three and a half year siege of the Shi’ite towns of Nubul and al-Zahraa, a key step in a wider campaign to recapture all of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the war.

The government's territorial breakthrough came after hundreds of bombing raids by Russian warplanes. The U.N. said it had been told hundreds of families had been uprooted following "an unprecedented frequency of air strikes in the past two days". Three aid workers were among the dead.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura announced a three-week pause in the Geneva talks, the first attempt to negotiate an end to Syria's war in two years. He had formally opened them on Friday but both sides denied they had ever begun.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0VC169

[Little Tich]

1. It seems as if Russia is mainly bombing the anti-Assad opposition, not ISIL.

Russia should stop, the bombings only benefit Assad and ISIL.

[Yupster]

3. The idea is to get rid of the non-ISIL rebels

so it then becomes 1 on 1, Assad versus ISIL in which case the world will side with Assad.

Hopefully the US is helping our friendly rebels get out of the war as they have no chance of winning it.

[Sunlei]

2. How sad, soon as the Geneva peace talks almost started bombs rained down in syria.