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Battle for Aleppo Shows Weaknesses of Both Sides

(New York Times) C. J. Chivers - Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Okaidi, a former Syrian military officer who is now a senior rebel commander in the Aleppo region, said, "Almost all of the military bases and regime forces in Aleppo have been surrounded." Syrian Army units in the area have been largely cut off from the capital. For weeks they have been yielding ground, contracting under the pressures of persistent rebel attacks and difficulties of resupply. The Assad regime's tactic of collective punishment through indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery barrages on residential neighborhoods has earned it only anger and disgust. Once able to roam freely in its armored columns, the army is confined mostly to Aleppo's south and west, retaining tenuous control of the airport in the southeast. Syrian Air Force support, almost continuous in the city over the summer, has dwindled. Passing attack jets often dispense decoy flares - a sign that pilots fear the rebels' portable, heat-seeking missiles. But the army, while weak, is still potent and difficult to dislodge.
2012-12-28 00:00:00
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