10,000 Al-Nusra militants surrounding Aleppo, plan to blockade the city – Russian military
https://www.rt.com/news/339244-syria-aleppo-blocked-militaints/
“Despite progress achieved in securing a ceasefire, Turkey continues to funnel men and arms to Jabhat al-Nusra,” said Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations at the Russian General Staff, at a scheduled press briefing in Moscow.
Alongside Islamic State, al-Nusra is not party to the shaky six-week old ceasefire being monitored by Russia and the US, and remains a legitimate target.
“Al-Nusra’s men and materiel are being allowed to pass through areas that the US has designated as being controlled by the opposition,” continued Rudskoy in a reprise of a frequent Russian claim that the West and its Middle Eastern allies are shielding extremists by labeling them as moderate opposition.
The official said that Moscow has asked Washington to assist in limiting al-Nusra’s strategic maneuvers.
According to Rudskoy more than 8,000 al-Nusra militants have concentrated on the south-western outskirts of Aleppo, and 1,500 are to the north of what was Syria’s largest city before the outbreak of violence in 2011. In the last day alone, more than 300 militants have arrived in the area, equipped with a tank, and over 20 offroaders with mounted guns.
Aleppo has been under partial rebel control since 2012, and intense clashes have erupted in the past week,
“It is reliably known that the militants are planning a large-scale offensive with the aim of cutting off communication between Aleppo and Damascus,” said Rudskoy. “If they are not stopped, we could see a blockade of northern parts of Syria.”
At the same time, the official moved to dispel strengthening rumors that the government is preparing a counter-offensive to regain control of Aleppo. These were strengthened by Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki, who said on Sunday, that “together with our Russian partners, we are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo.”
“There are no plans to storm Aleppo,” insisted Rudskoy.
Despite public statements from opposition forces and Western diplomats that the ceasefire is on the verge of a breakdown, the Russian general claimed that “peace is returning to Syria.”
He specifically mentioned the towns of Palmyra and Al-Qaratayn, which have been won back from Islamic State this month. Rudskoy also said that 61 settlements have signed up to the ceasefire with Syrian authorities, and 47 military brigades have indicated that they have stopped fighting to the Russian monitoring center.
Syrian army sends reinforcements to Aleppo
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0X81ZU
The Syrian army was on Monday reported to be sending reinforcements to Aleppo, where renewed fighting is threatening a fragile truce in the run-up to the next round of peace talks.
Underlining the conflict’s regional dimensions, Iranian media announced the first deaths of members of its regular army in Syria, a week after Tehran said army commandos had been deployed in support of Damascus. Iran’s military support has so far mostly been provided by the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps.
An eruption of fighting near the ancient city of Aleppo in the last two weeks marks the most serious challenge yet to a “cessation of hostilities” brokered by the United States and Russia with the aim of facilitating peace talks.
Pointing to the frayed state of the truce, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is visiting Damascus, that Turkey and Saudi Arabia were behind violations of the deal.
He said they had ordered insurgents to stage attacks aimed at foiling planned Geneva talks. There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The two nations have backed the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, providing insurgents with arms and money. Assad is supported militarily by both Iran and Russia.
The U.N.-sponsored talks, which resume on Wednesday, aim to end a five-year-old conflict which has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Islamic State. The first round made little progress, with no sign of compromise over the key issue of Assad’s future.
Underlining Assad’s confidence, the Syrian government is due to hold parliamentary elections in state-held parts of the country on Wednesday. The opposition has called the vote a sham.
FIGHTING FOR ALEPPO
The fighting near Aleppo has focused around a cluster of towns along the main road to the south.
Rebels say the army has also intensified bombing, and Russian warplanes have resumed air strikes in the area.
The army has accused rebels of taking part in attacks by the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-linked group, which along with Islamic State was not included in the truce agreement.
Russia said on Monday that Nusra was massing around Aleppo ahead of a major offensive.
Syria’s Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki was quoted on Sunday as saying the government, backed by Russia’s air force, was planning an operation to retake Aleppo, but the Russian defense ministry said there were no plans to storm the city.
Local media on both sides reported a large build-up of troops and equipment by the Syrian army and its allies around Aleppo, with the pro-Damascus al-Mayadeen TV reporting it had seen tanks and rocket launchers heading towards the city.
The government and its allies have mounted major operations against insurgents to the north and south of Aleppo in the six months since Russia began air strikes in support of Assad and cut the most direct supply route to Turkey earlier this year.
But rebels still hold territory in and around the city, including its western approaches.
The two fiercest fronts in fighting around Aleppo in recent days have been in the towns of Telat al-Eis, Zitan, Zirba and Khan Touman on the main highway south to Damascus, and around the Handarat camp on a main road running north to Turkey.
The Aleppo front is one of the areas where Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have deployed in support of the army.
The Iranian Tasnim news agency said four soldiers in Iran’s regular army had been killed in Syria, without saying when or where. “Four of the first military advisers of the Islamic Republic’s army … were killed in Syria by takfiri groups,” it said, referring to hardline Sunni Islamists.
TRYING TO PROTECT CEASEFIRE
Both Damascus and the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee have held the other to blame for breaches in the truce, which came into effect on Feb. 27.
De Mistura was in Damascus for meetings with senior government officials before traveling on to Iran in an attempt to revive the peace talks after negotiations in March failed to make much progress.
The next round will focus on a political transition, de Mistura said. Moualem said the government would be ready to take part.
Meanwhile, fighting also erupted between rebels and Islamic State on Monday, as the group reclaimed the town of al-Rai near the border with Turkey, about 50km (30 miles) from Aleppo, only days after it fell to the Turkish-backed rebels.
The Fourth Revolutionary War 