Terrorists Lose 60% of Aleppo

Close to two-thirds of militant-held areas of east Aleppo have now fallen to the Syrian government after another district was freed from the grip of terrorists.

The Syrian government has been able to recapture Tariq al-Bab District on Friday after being held by the militants for four years. The area opens up a link between government-held areas and Aleppo’s airport.

BBC reported that swathes of east Aleppo held by militants have been seized by government troops in the past three weeks. Yet some 250,000 people remain trapped in besieged areas of the city.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. The United Nations this week said conditions in east Aleppo were now so dire that medical operations were being conducted without anesthetics.

The BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is in west Aleppo, said the seizure of Tariq al-Bab meant that 60% of the areas formerly held by militants are now in government hands.

Thousands of people fled Tariq al-Bab into neighboring areas as fighting intensified.

On Thursday, Russia, which supports President Bashar al-Assad’s government, indicated it was ready to discuss opening four safe corridors for humanitarian access.

Aleppo was once Syria’s largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the crisis began in 2011.

It has been divided in roughly two for the past four years. But in the past 11 months, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help Russian airstrikes.

  Humanitarian Risk

Earlier this week, Stephen O’Brien, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, said besieged areas of the city risked becoming “one giant graveyard”.

He said some people inside militant-controlled areas were so hungry they were reduced to scavenging.

With the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo deteriorating by the day, the United Nations special envoy for the country appealed for a pause in fighting so that much needed relief can reach the city’s population and those with urgent medical emergencies can be evacuated.

“The most urgent need now is shelter, particularly with the approaching winter,” said Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura who, together with his Special Advisor, Jan Egeland, briefed the press in Geneva after the meeting of the Humanitarian Access Task Force of the International Syria Support Group.

Calling on the fighters of the Al Nusra front to leave the city, de Mistura added: “This will contribute to avoiding bloodshed and increase our leverage on insisting for an urgent pause.”

The ISSG has established the respective taskforces on humanitarian aid delivery and a wider ceasefire. Russia and the United States are the co-chairs of the taskforces and the ISSG, which also comprises the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and 16 other countries.