PHOTO: Claimed image of one of the rebel tunnel bombs leading to entry into Ramouseh, southwest of Aleppo
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UPDATE 0830 GMT: A local source reports on the frontline situation in the town of Ramouseh, southwest of Aleppo, this morning: “The neighborhood and are industrial area still fought over. Rebels have the area next to the artillery base and probably half of the town.”
The source says the situation is “fluid” with “lots of hit-and-run battles” inside and outside Ramouseh, including regime counter-attacks and rebel ambushes: “Rebels retreat when Russia bombs and advance afterwards. [Pro-Assad troops] just occupy a place after Russian airstrikes and then flee when rebels attack.”
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Rebels took more territory on the third day of their major offensive near Syria’s largest city Aleppo.
The rebel advance on Tuesday culminated in a move into the town of Ramouseh, on the ring road southwest of Aleppo, in an attack that began with two tunnel bombs under regime military positions.
Some pro-opposition activists claimed that the town had been captured; however, outlets connected with rebels advised caution: while some buildings had been taken, fighting continues.
The anti-Assad forces have cut the regime’s supply line near Ramouseh. The nearby military academy is still in regime hands; however, rebels have begun the shelling of an important artillery base after surrounding it on three sides. Photographs on Tuesday showed fires inside the complex.
Rebel fighters inside Ramouseh:
The offensive, involving thousands of fighters, began on Sunday on a 20-km (12.5-mile) front around the western side of Aleppo from north of south. The rebels are hoping not only to break the siege of opposition-held areas of Aleppo city — imposed in early July after pro-Assad forces effectively cut the al-Castello road to the north — but to cut supply lines to the Syrian military and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies.
On Sunday and Monday, the rebels quickly took a series of positions, including villages near the artillery base; a school used as a staging area for the Syrian military and its foreign allies; a large housing complex; and an oil depot.
Footage of a vehicle-borne suicide bomb, apparently in the attack on the 1070 housing complex:
صباح الخير.. هذا تصوير خاص من قلب حلب استشهادي يقود مفخخة لتفجيرها بالغزاة والمرتزقة الإيرانيين لفك الحصار …. pic.twitter.com/v4VKepkDVP
— موسى العمر (@MousaAlomar) August 3, 2016
A view of the artillery base from rebel positions:
Rebel “fire control” over the road at Ramouseh, threatening regime supply lines:
Russia and Regime Counter with Propaganda
Russian and Syrian State TV initially claimed that the attacks had been repelled. Russia’s General Staff insisted that more than 800 rebels — “led by Jabhat al-Nusra” — were killed and that 14 tanks and 10 infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed.
The Russian-regime line shifted on Tuesday morning to the assertion that lost territory had been regained. However, the pro-Assad counter-attack on the 1070 housing complex was eventually repelled, and the claims were overtaken by confirmation of the rebel capture of Ramouseh and the attacks on the artillery base.
The Assad regime then tried a new PR tactic, asserting that rebels had fired shells with “toxic gas” on regime-held western Aleppo city. Aleppo Health Director Mohamad Hazouri declared that five residents were killed and eight others suffered from suffocation.
There was no evidence to support the regime claims.
On Monday, regime helicopters reportedly dropped chlorine gas canisters on the town of Saraqeb in Idlib Province. A doctor confirmed that 29 people, including infants, were treated for breathing difficulties.
See Syria Daily, August 2: Opposition — Chemical Attack on Saraqeb in Idlib Province
The Local Coordination Committees documented 87 deaths across Syria on Tuesday, including 42 in Aleppo Province and 20 in Idlib Province.
Fires on the frontline, seen from regime-held western Aleppo city:
Claimed video of people in opposition-held eastern Aleppo city, celebrating the rebel offensive:
#AleppoVictory#حلب
People in besieged side of Aleppo take en mass to the streets to celebrate imminent victorypic.twitter.com/HdZLZmgFio— Jamming (@Buzzriet) August 2, 2016
Aleppo Hospital Hit by Regime “Vacuum Bomb”
Regime forces have attacked an Aleppo hospital with a vacuum bomb, according to an American NGO which owns the facility.
Mohammed Khatoub said staff concluded that they were hit on Tuesday night by a thermobaric weapon, also known as a vacuum bomb, based on the injuries to patients and the damage to the hospital.
The attack was the third on the M2 Hospital. Images on social media showed patients in their beds struggling to move as first responders tried to drag them to safety.
Khatoub said no one was killed, but two ambulances were destroyed and the primary health care center and physiotherapy center were damaged.
Months of Russian and regime airstrikes have left only three fully-operational hospitals in eastern Aleppo city. Thirteen hospitals sponsored by the Syrian American Medial Society have been destroyed in the past year.
Vacuum bombs release a fine cloud of explosive mixture which is then ignited, creating an intense fireball which consumes all available oxygen and delivers a devastating shock wave.
The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, reaffirmed in 2015 that the weapons are illegal according to international law following a deadly attack last year. Syrian government jets were alleged to have used a vacuum bomb on a market in Douma, a suburb northeast of Damascus, killing almost 100 people.