Jihadists and rebels captured strategic military positions on the edges of Syria’s second city Aleppo on Saturday, turning the tables on Russian-backed regime forces besieging the city.
To the northeast, a Western-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters scored a major victory against the Islamic State group in the town of Manbij after a fierce two-month battle. The developments have rocked the key northern province of Aleppo, a microcosm of Syria’s topsy-turvy, multi-front war that has killed more than 280,000 people.
Rebel and regime forces have fought for control of the provincial capital of the same name since mid-2012, transforming the former economic powerhouse into a divided, bombed-out city.
On Saturday, opposition fighters and allied jihadists captured territory south of Aleppo in a bid to cut off regime forces and open up a new route into besieged rebel-held districts.
“The Army of Conquest took control of the armament school, where there is a large amount of ammunitions, and a large part of the artillery school” at a military academy, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists “is about to cut off, by gunfire, the supply route into government-controlled districts,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. That road passes through a southwestern suburb of Ramussa and is the last route into Aleppo used by regime troops.Opposition forces - encircled by the government since July 17 - are hoping to expand their control in the area and use that route themselves.
“Days ago, I was only thinking about how to get a bite to eat,” said Ahmad Adna, a 46-year-old resident of eastern Aleppo. “Now I’m more optimistic after the Army of Conquest’s advance. I hope today will be the last day of the siege.”
The former Al-Nusra Front - renamed Jabhat Fateh al-Sham after breaking from Al-Qaeda - on Saturday announced having captured the two military academies and a third military position.
Drone footage posted by the group online showed a series of explosions in some of those buildings, followed by massive columns of billowing black smoke. Pictures obtained by AFP show a crumpled body, reportedly of a regime fighter, laying next to artillery weapons lined up in a building newly captured by jihadists.