PHOTO: Rebels fire on Kurdish militia in Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo on Tuesday (Anadolu/Getty)
LATEST
- US Asks Russia to Pressure Assad over Aid to Besieged Areas
- Video: Palmyra Damaged by Both Islamic State and Regime-Russian Bombardment
- Russia’s Lavrov to UN Envoy: We Need “Unity of Foreign Players”
- Iranian-Led Attack Fails to Recapture Territory South of Aleppo
WEDNESDAY FEATURES
Rebels Defeat Iran-Led Attack on South Aleppo Front
Rebels Down Regime Warplane with Anti-Air Missile
Fighting escalated between the Kurdish militia YPG and rebels on Tuesday in and near Aleppo city in northwest Syria.
Yesterday’s clashes started when the YPG tried to seize the al-Castello road, a main route into opposition-held areas of Aleppo. Skirmishes were also renewed in the Sheikh Maqsoud district of the city.
Kurdish activists claimed that 11 civilians were killed and others wounded by rebel shelling in Sheikh Maqsoud amid the ground battles. The Local Coordination Committees said casualties in Sheikh Maqsoud and al-A’zamia made up most of the 27 people slain in Aleppo Province on Tuesday.
By late afternoon, rebels said they had not only countered the al-Castello operation but taken YPG checkpoints in western Sheikh Maqsoud.
Last month, the YPG seized territory in Aleppo Province from rebels, including towns such as Tal Rifaat and Deir Jamal. They advanced as far as the key border town of Azaz before they were checked by Turkish shelling as well as rebel resistance.
The offensive was then suspended by the February 27 cessation of hostilities arranged by international powers, but skirmishes in Sheikh Maqsoud have continued.
Tensions are also rising over a race by each side to take territory from the retreating Islamic State along the Turkish border. Rebels are moving on the town of Jarablus from the west, while the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are advancing from the east.
Both Ankara and rebels are concerned that Kurdish forces will try to link the Afrin canton in Aleppo Province with the Kobane and Cezire cantons in northeast Syria.
Turkey has warned the SDF and its US backers from any attempt to take Jarablus. Meanwhile, Washington is seeking Ankara’s assent to an SDF operation against ISIS in the town of Manbij to the south.
Turkish officials had held out against any advance west of the Euphrates River, but the SDF — backed by US weapons, ammunition, and special forces — have gradually moved towards Manbij since crossing the river in December.
US Asks Russia to Pressure Assad over Aid to Besieged Areas
The US has publicly asked Russia to pressure the Assad regime to allow aid into besieged areas.
UN Ambassador Samantha Power, saying that it is “an abomination for a member state of the UN to be blocking food in the way that the Syrian government has done”, asserted:
We and other [Security] Council members have appealed to those with influence over a government that has proven itself susceptible to influence when the pressure is intense enough. It’s going to take a very, very large push to change the trajectory for people who are this malnourished.
UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien has said that access is still blocked to six of 18 besieged towns, and that less assistance was delivered in March than in February.
Power described his briefing to the Security Council as “extremely chilling, heartbreaking” and cited the case of a boy who died in Madaya in Damascus Province this week “because the Syrian government refused his evacuation”.
The UN has appealed to the Assad regime to allow the movement of sick and starving civilians.
The Ambassador also cited Darayya, southwest of Damascus, where residents have been cut off by the Syrian military since late 2012.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov pushed aside Power’s appeal, saying that a humanitarian task force had been set up by the International Syria Support Group in February: “It’s a better way to work together.”
Video: Palmyra Damaged by Both Islamic State and Regime-Russian Bombardment
Britain’s Channel 4 reports on the destruction in Palmyra, the Roman-era city recaptured by pro-Assad forces 11 days ago from the Islamic State.
Lindsey Hilsum says that the damage was caused both by ISIS occupation and by intense Russian and regime aerial bombardment. She also notes the looting by Syrian forces after their entry into the city.
The report prompted this response from a pro-regime blogger, “I am okay with the [area] being leveled if it meant the eradication of the terrorists inside it. We can rebuild.”
Russia’s Lavrov to UN Envoy: We Need “Unity of Foreign Players”
Meeting UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has declared:
One of the most important tasks is to ensure unity of actions of external players. As, in the long run, the signals coming to the Syrian parties are to be synchronized. These should be signals for peace and national accord.
Lavrov did not give any details of “actions” beyond the mantra, “Only the Syrian people can determine the future of their country.”
However, at the United Nations, Russia made another effort to expand the Geneva talks beyond the Assad delegation and the opposition-rebel High Negotiations Committee. The Russians want to include the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Syrian politicians with links to Moscow.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the initiative to introduce the proposal failed, linking the outcome to Moscow’s tensions with Ukraine:
We were surprised when the draft was blocked by some Western countries. The Ukrainian delegation also chipped in destructively.
Such stance raises eyebrows.
Iranian-Led Attack Fails to Recapture Territory South of Aleppo
An Iranian-led offensive has failed to recapture territory south of Aleppo that was seized by rebels last Friday.
The Iranian forces headed the fourth attempt in two days to take the town of al-Eis on the Aleppo-to-Damascus highway.
