Syria army readies Aleppo offensive as civilian toll rises

ALEPPO, Syria – The Syrian army was preparing an offensive on Thursday, April 28, to retake the whole of Aleppo, as fighting in the divided second city killed 38 civilians in a new blow for a tattered truce.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past week as rebels have pounded government-held neighborhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura warned the hard-won February 27 ceasefire was now “barely alive” and pleaded for urgent action by its cosponsors Russia and the United States to rescue it.

But pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said the army was now poised for a “decisive battle” for Aleppo and the surrounding province which would begin in the coming days.

“Now is the time to launch the battle for the complete liberation of Aleppo,” the paper said in an editorial, adding that the campaign “will not take long to begin, nor to finish.”

A source close to the regime told AFP the offensive would begin in the next few days.

“The army is preparing a huge operation in the coming days to push the rebels away from the city by encircling it and creating a security zone,” the source said.

Rebels have controlled eastern districts of Aleppo since 2012, confining the government to the west.

Control of the surrounding province is divided between a myriad of armed groups – jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, Kurdish militia and various rebel factions as well as the army.

The upsurge in violence in and around Aleppo has severely holed the February ceasefire between the government and non-jihadist rebels and cast a shadow over the UN envoy’s hopes of convening a new round of peace talks next month.

Rebel rocket and artillery fire on government-held neighborhoods on Thursday killed 18 civilians, including two children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Regime air strikes on rebel-held districts, including the densely populated Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, killed 20 civilians, including 3 children, the Observatory said.

‘Still alive, but barely’

Overnight, government air strikes hit a hospital and nearby block of flats in the rebel-held Sukkari neighbourhood, killing 30 people, the civil defense group known as the White Helmets told AFP.

Among the dead was the last pediatrician still working in rebel areas of the city.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which had been supporting the hospital that was hit, condemned the strike.

“The MSF-supported hospital in Aleppo was the main referral center for pediatrics and had 8 doctors and 28 nurses. Hospitals are #notatarget,” the group said on Twitter.

Ten of the dead were so badly disfigured they could not be identified, a rescue worker told AFP.

The Aleppo violence has raised fears for the ceasefire in other areas of Syria and called into question the future of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva.

The UN envoy said the truce was “still alive, but barely.”

“It’s still there… but it’s in great danger… And the perception is that it could collapse at any time,” de Mistura told reporters.

He said the United States, which supports some rebel groups, and regime ally Russia needed to act, calling on them to organize a high-level Syria meeting before negotiations resume.

As the latest round of talks went into recess, de Mistura said he wanted to open a fresh set “during the course of May.”

But he added that he was waiting to fix a date in the hope that world powers would use their leverage to salvage the ceasefire.

“How can you have substantial talks when you have only news about bombing and shelling?” he asked. – Karam al-Masri with Rim Haddad in Damascus, AFP / Rappler.com