Syrian regime surrounds opposition-held Aleppo

Syrian regime forces yesterday besieged opposition-controlled eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, after blocking the last strategic route out of the city.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Assad’s forces descended on the Castello Road blocking it completely.

“The eastern neighbourhoods are now completely besieged,” he said.

The move comes ten days after Assad’s forces gained control of the Al-Fallah southern farms on the eastern side.

Fierce battles between Assad’s forces and the opposition factions have been ongoing since 7 July over the strategic routes from the east and west of the city.

A rebel fighter from the Aleppo Revolutionaries group said that “Aleppo is now 100 per cent besieged”.

“The army has reached the road and even arrested a group of civilians who were walking there,” the fighter told AFP.

“They are now setting up sandbag barriers,” he added.

According to UN reports, some 300,000 civilians live in opposition-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo.