AFP, 8 Aug 2016 – Syrian regime forces and rebel factions sent hundreds of reinforcements to Aleppo on Monday as opposition fighters announced an all-out offensive to take the country’s second city.
The battle for Syria’s former economic powerhouse is intensifying after an opposition advance at the weekend broke through a three-week government siege of the city’s rebel-held east, dealing a major setback to regime troops.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said some 2,000 pro-regime fighters from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah had arrived in Aleppo since late Sunday.
“Both sides are amassing their fighters in preparation for the great battle of Aleppo,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory.

Once Syria’s commercial hub, Aleppo has been transformed into a bombed-out, divided city since fighting first erupted there in 2012

– ‘New phase to liberate Aleppo’ –

Aleppo has been roughly divided between government forces in the west and rebel groups in the east since fighting first broke out there in mid-2012.
After years of stalemate, fighting for the city entered a new phase last month when government forces took control of the last supply road into rebel-held areas, leaving some 250,000 people in eastern districts surrounded.

Opposition fighters drive a tank in a besieged neighborhood of Aleppo

In a desperate bid to break the siege, a coalition of rebels overran a series of buildings in a military academy on the southwestern edges of Aleppo on Saturday.
They then pushed northeast to link up with rebel groups inside the city.
Emboldened by the victory, the fighters — largely grouped under the banner of the Army of Conquest — then set their sights on recapturing all of Aleppo city.
In a statement on Sunday the Army of Conquest announced “the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo,” pledging to “double the number of fighters for this next battle.”
Abdel Rahman told AFP on Monday that hundreds of opposition fighters had arrived in Aleppo from the surrounding province and neighboring Idlib.

Syrian gather in a street in Aleppo on August 6, 2016, in celebrations after rebels said they have broken a three-week government siege on Syria’s second city

“Whoever wins (in Aleppo), the war will not end. It is however an important battle, the result of which will set the course of the conflict,” said Thomas Pierret, a Syria expert at the University of Edinburgh.
“If the rebels win, Syria will head towards partition, with a regime arc in the Golan Heights, Damascus, Homs, and the coast,” he said.
But if the regime wins, Pierret expected a “collapse” of the rebel insurgency in its heartland of Idlib.

– Aid to regime areas –

Residents of both sides of the city have been living in fear of competing sieges of their neighborhoods in recent weeks.
The rebel advance at the weekend cut off a key regime access route on the city’s southern edges, which had been used to bring in supplies for the estimated 1.2 million residents of western districts.
Overnight, regime forces brought in dozens of trucks carrying food and fuel into the western neighbourhoods via the northern Castello Road, according to the Observatory.
“This is the new route that the regime forces are securing as a temporary alternative to the route they previously depended on,” Abdel Rahman said.
Syrian state television Al-Ikhbariyah confirmed that “fuel, food, and vegetables entered Aleppo city.”
Seven trucks of fruits and vegetables entered the eastern rebel-held districts on Sunday and were quickly purchased by residents.
More than 280,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
International efforts to resolve the conflict have repeatedly failed though the United Nations is hoping that peace talks can resume later this month.