Rebels Lose All of Northeast Aleppo, 16,000 Displaced
On Monday Syrian rebels lost control of all northern neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo as the army continued its advance, Agence France-Presse reported.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been split between a rebel-held east and government-controlled west since 2012.
“This is their (the rebels’) worst defeat since they seized half the city in 2012,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Civilians fleeing the Syrian army’s advance have escaped to government-controlled districts, areas held by Kurdish forces or deeper into opposition territory.
As many as 16,000 people have been forced to move by the government’s attack on rebel-held parts of Aleppo, said United Nations humanitarian chief and relief coordinator Stephen O’Brien on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
With the support of the Russian air force and backed by Lebanese and Iranian Shiite militias, the government’s advance into eastern Aleppo has killed at least 225 civilians, according to SOHR.
O’Brien said that with no functioning hospitals or food rations thousands more will likely flee their homes in the coming days.
Losing Aleppo does not spell the defeat of the rebels, the Syrian opposition’s senior negotiator, George Sabra, told the BBC.
“Aleppo is an important place for the revolution but it’s not the last place,” he said, warning that the offensive on Aleppo is “killing a part of the political process.”
Syrian Government Accused of Three Toxic Gas Attacks
The international chemical weapons’ watchdog criticized Syria on Monday for using toxic gas and repeatedly refusing to fully explain its chemical weapons program, the Associated Press reported.
A joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found the Syrian government responsible for at least three toxic gas attacks in the period 2014–15 and the so-called Islamic State responsible for one. Syria has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.
Syria’s chemical attacks are “the most serious violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention in its history,” Brett Mason, Australia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, told the annual Conference of the States Parties of the OPCW, urging them to take action.
The Syrian government’s “flagrant and repeated violations of its basic obligations under our convention cannot be met with silence or excuses by this conference,” Mason said.
The reports of the Syrian government using chemical weapons are “part of a coordinated and repeated campaign of lies,” said Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s vice minister of foreign affairs.
Syria joined the OPCW in 2013 and was also criticized on Monday for ignoring questions about discrepancies in the extent of its chemical weapons program.
Iran Says It May Establish Naval Bases in Syria
Iran may establish naval bases in Syria or Yemen in the future, said the chief of staff of Iranian armed forces on Sunday, Reuters reported.
“We need distant bases, and it may become possible one day to have bases on the shores of Yemen or Syria, or bases on islands or floating (bases),” General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said.
The remarks from Iran came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on November 10 that Israel will not allow Iran to establish military bases in Syria “on the ground, in the air or at sea.”
Iran, a key ally of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, has provided financial and military support to Syria. Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of the Syrian war, responding to errant fire, but has targeted weapons convoys allegedly destined for the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
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