Aleppo: Fate of up to 50,000 civilians hangs in the balance

AFP/Getty Images
Robert Fox14 December 2016

The fate of up to 50,000 trapped civilians and at least 1,500 fighters in Aleppo hung in the balance today.

Russian-backed Syrian government forces and Iranian militia have been accused of continuing a round of atrocities in the city since before the weekend.

Families crossing to the western part of Aleppo have been shot at and men, women and children summarily executed in the streets, according to numerous accounts.

The reported delay in an evacuation operation to get civilians out of the bombed remains of eastern Aleppo is an indication of the shakiness of the position of the Assad regime and its backers in Syria as a whole.

The deal to escort civilians, under UN supervision, has been put off because Damascus is looking for similar arrangements to get its supporters out of besieged towns and villages east of Aleppo.

Aleppo - In pictures

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The dictatorship of Bashar Assad is running out of military resources to keep a ground war going in several centres at once. This was spelled out by the fighting in the ancient desert city of Palmyra at the weekend.

A lightning assault by IS fighters was only reversed by a series of air strikes — 64 in less than 24 hours — by Russian planes. Today IS is still in charge of at least part of the city.

The regime’s equipment is wearing out, too. Russia will have to mount a huge resupply of ground vehicles, helicopters, weaponry and ammunition to keep their Syrian client going through the summer.

Vladimir Putin appears to be achieving his aim of getting back Aleppo, once Syria’s largest and wealthiest city, for Assad and his cohorts. But it has come at a big price. It’s bad news for his newest would-be friend, Donald Trump, as well as for himself.

Trump’s cosying up to Moscow looks more sour by the day — on two counts. First there is the sheer brutality of how Russia and Assad are fighting and imposing their version of peace.

Second, there is the smell of being assisted by a Moscow-driven cyber-hacking campaign to win the White House.

For Russia, there’s the shadow of its support for a quasi-Marxist regime in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.

It is getting into the same bind now backing a failing dictatorship in Syria. The Afghanistan misadventure ended in regime change in Moscow, with the collapse of the Soviet empire exactly 25 years ago.

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