Jerusalem (Online): Rebel factions in Syria say they have broken a weeks-long government siege of Aleppo, amid scenes of rejoicing in the crucial northern city.
Sources close to government forces denied that they had been pushed aside and said they had driven the rebels back from an artillery base. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition news service, said the rebels had broken the siege but the route was “not fully secure yet”.
On Friday, the rebel groups said they had stormed an artillery base in the city. But the Syrian army said it had repelled the assault and inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels. Meanwhile, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seized most of Manbij a key Syrian city – from so-called Islamic State.
It has been able to score some major gains in the past 48 hours. The question is not whether the opposition has made some progress or not but whether they can really maintain the areas that they occupy and whether they can consolidate it.
