Syria: Syrian Forces Captures Largest Aleppo Rebel District

Syria: Syrian Forces Captures Largest Aleppo Rebel District

The Syrian army said it had taken control of an important district in rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Saturday after fierce fighting, with rebels blaming intense air strikes and lack of hospitals for their collapsing front-line.

Photo Source: Al-Masdar News

Government forces advanced with a ground and air assault on the edge of the besieged eastern half of the city, a move the rebels say is designed to split their most important urban stronghold in two.

State news agency SANA said on November 26 that Syrian forces were now in "full control" of the Hanano district and were clearing the area of mines and bombs.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the gains and said government forces were launching a follow-up assault on two neighboring districts, Al-Haidariyah and Sakhur.

Aleppo War, Syria
Photo Source: The Independent

Aleppo, which was Syria's biggest city before the start of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, is divided between the government-held west and rebel-held east, where U.N. officials say at least 250,000 people are under siege.

Aleppo War, SyriaPhoto Source: gettyimages

“For millions of human beings in Syria, life has become an endless nightmare – in particular for the hundreds of thousands of children living under siege,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement. “Children are being killed and injured, too afraid to go to school or even play, surviving with little food and hardly any medicine.”
 UNICEF said some communities have received “little to no aid in nearly two years.”