Antigovernment activists reached in Aleppo said the city’s residents were gripped by foreboding as government forces massed on the southern outskirts, and that fierce street clashes had sporadically erupted. But Syrian military commanders appeared to be awaiting reinforcements before issuing invasion orders.
Military experts have long speculated that President Bashar Assad’s army, which has been scrambling to crush rebel resistance in urban areas like Homs, Hama and parts of Damascus, lacked the military resources to take on an armed rebellion in all major cities at once. That seemed to explain the delay in Aleppo, where anticipation of an attack has been building for days.
The United States expressed alarm about the possibility of mass civilian casualties in Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the Middle East’s most storied cities. Victoria Nuland, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said there was “concern that we will see a massacre in Aleppo, and that’s what the regime appears to be lining up for.”
But Nuland also indicated that the U.S. was not reconsidering its stance against military intervention, saying, “We do not think pouring more fuel onto the fire is going to save lives.”
A resident in the city named Ahmed, reached by Skype on Thursday afternoon, said Aleppo was convulsed with rumours that the army’s elite Fourth Division, commanded by Assad’s brother Maher, was mobilizing for an attack.
“We are terrified,” he said.
Antigovernment fighters — including foreign fighters — were arriving or were preparing to travel to Aleppo from surrounding areas, activists said. Although the insurgents claimed to have destroyed police stations in two of the city’s neighbourhoods, they were repulsed when they tried to take over two others, said Majed Abdel Nour, a spokesman in the city for the Shaam News Network, an antigovernment activist group.
The possibility of a major battle for Aleppo came as Turkey’s prime minister injected a new element of tension into the Syrian conflict, asserting that Syrian forces had abandoned territories close to the Turkish border that had since been occupied by Kurdish militants hostile to Turkey.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters in Turkey that his country’s armed forces would “take whatever steps are necessary against terrorism” in these areas, foreshadowing possible Turkish military incursions into Syria.
Most of the clashes that have paralyzed Aleppo in recent days have taken place in the poorer, eastern parts, where a host of informal neighbourhoods have sprung up in recent years. Populated mainly by Sunni Muslims arriving from rural areas, residents are sympathetic to the fighters, offering them meals to break the Ramadan fast and other support. There have also been clashes near the city’s historic centre.
But with shelling during the night, residents took advantage of daylight to try to flee. Government helicopters continued to patrol Aleppo, firing occasionally, activists said.
The official Syrian news agency reported Thursday that clashes between the army and armed groups had “resulted in the killing and wounding of many terrorists.”
Mohamed, a resident from the eastern part of Aleppo, said the army was randomly shelling the city and beefing up its presence at checkpoints. Dozens of civilians had been killed in the past two days, he said.
He added that there were no police officers on the streets, no fuel available and no bread.
Abu Qusay, a field activist and fighter from nearby Idlib Province, said that he and dozens of other fighters, including Libyans, were preparing to travel on farm roads toward Aleppo. The fighters were bringing some light weapons, and counting on finding more in stockpiles seized by the rebels inside the city, he said.
In Damascus, activists reported scores of deaths, including among civilians, during heavy fighting in southern suburbs, the scene of clashes over the last two weeks.
There were also reports of deadly clashes between rebel fighters and the army in Tall Shihab, a town that hugs Syria’s border with Jordan and that sits along a route used by refugees trying to escape Syria.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: NEIL MacFARQUHAR and RICK GLADSTONE
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