The battle for Aleppo is heading to its turning point. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a new brand of the Al Nusra Front terrorist group, various jihadi faction and the Western-backed moderate oppositioners has set a joint front against the Syrian government forces, supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces and Iranian-backed Shia militias. They were pushed to make this move, which clearly showed there were only terrorists and terrorist-linked groups in Aleppo, because of successful actions of the Assad government and its Russian and Iranian allies that lead to encirclement of the militant-controlled areas of the city.
This and a threat of cessation of support through the Turkish border after August 9 meeting between Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan forced Jabhat Fateh al-Sham leadership and its allies to risk everything, redeploying all elite infantry in the battle for Aleppo and moving rear supply bases and command centres closer to the strategic city. The militants’ actions show that they the “all-or-nothing” approach.
Despite all PR claims of the West that the Assad government and its allies have to stop military operations, it’s clear that the intensification of military pressure on the terrorists storming Aleppo, including the usage of strategic bombers that have already been in action over Palmyra, is the most rational answer to the challenges faced there.
The Russian missile ships Tatarstan and Dagestan, which are scheduled to hold missile and artillery live-firing drills in the south-western part of the Caspian Sea, could also use Kalibr missile systems in order to destroy the jihadists’ command centers, training camps and rear bases in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside.
If the jihadists’ resistance is broken, pro-government forces will take control of the important logistic hub and put an end to the US-, Turkish- and Saudi-backed jihadists as a united force in Syria. It will create an opportunity to destroy the rest of terrorists and terrorist-linked groups, ignoring the PR statements that the so-called “moderate opposition” has forgotten to separate from them.
