BEIRUT- Syrian rebels broke through to besieged opposition-held areas in eastern Aleppo on Saturday in an assault on a major government military complex meant to end a month-long siege, insurgents and a monitoring group said.
Rebels have been trying to break through a thin strip of government-controlled territory to reconnect insurgent areas in western Syria with their encircled sector of eastern Aleppo, in effect breaking a government siege begun last month.
The offensive against the government’s Ramousah military complex, which contains a number of military colleges, began on Friday. Taking control of Ramousah and linking up with eastern Aleppo would isolate government-held western Aleppo by cutting the southern route out toward the capital Damascus.
It would also give rebels access to armaments stored in the base the Syrian army has used in the five-year conflict as a strategic platform from which to shell opposition targets.
Two rebel groups and a monitor said on Saturday they had broken the siege.
WORST MONTH FOR HOSPITAL ATTACKS
In another report, the Observatory said an air strike on a hospital in northwestern Syria killed 10 people including children on Saturday. July was the worst month yet for attacks on medical facilities in the war-torn country, a medical charity said, with 43 recorded attacks on healthcare facilities in Syria.
Men and civil defense members look for survivors after an airstrike on a hospital in the town of Meles, western Idlib city in rebel-held Idlib province, Syria August 6, 2016.
The hospital is in Meles, about 15 km (9 miles)from Idlib city in rebel-held Idlib province. Syrian government and allied Russian warplanes operate in Syria but it was not known which aircraft carried out the strike.
The Observatory, in its report on the Aleppo fighting, said rebels took control on Friday of the Weaponry College and part of the Artillery College.
Rebels are now fighting to establish full control of the Artillery College, the Air Force Technical College and to make a firm link-up with rebel-held eastern Aleppo.
A witness said people in the streets of a part of eastern Aleppo briefly celebrated reports of the siege being broken before the sight of warplanes in the sky scattered them.
Videos released by rebel groups claim to show gun battles as insurgents moved into buildings in the complex.
CIVILIAN SUFFERING
A quarter of a million civilians are thought to still live in Aleppo’s opposition-controlled eastern neighborhoods, effectively under siege since the army and allied militia cut off the last road into rebel districts in early July.
Humanitarian groups say the situation in eastern Aleppo is very worrying. The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) charity group said that already depleted medical facilities were targeted by strikes 15 times in July.
Only 35 doctors remain in the city and over 100 people are in need of medical evacuation, SAMS Aleppo Coordinator Dr Abo El-Ezz said in a statement.
The multi-sided civil war in Syria, which has been raging since 2011, has drawn in regional and global powers, caused the world’s worst humanitarian emergency and attracted recruits to Islamist militancy from around the world.
Source: Reuters, 6 Aug. 2016