Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Masses of People Leave Eastern Aleppo | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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“There are still corpses in the streets, there are wounded people everywhere and hunger is killing those civilians that remain. I do not know if the term “humanitarian disaster” is sufficient to describe the situation of the city, but the reality is worse than can be described in words.”

The above is a description of the situation in the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo that is situated in northern Syria. The description was made by a prominent Syrian opposition activist named Hadi Al-Abdullah and he gave this account five days after the Syrian regime and its allies launched a major offensive on the city through which they were able to make advances into the areas that have been controlled by the Syrian opposition since 2012.

Al-Abdullah said that opposition factions remain devoted to fighting but said that “all options remain open” with regards to the possibility that they might accept to withdraw at a later time or continue with the fighting. He added that “there are a number of reasons for the opposition’s withdrawal in the city; the most prominent of these is the unprecedented bombing in the south, the fact that hospitals have been bombed and taken out of service as a result and wounded people are unable to leave for treatment. This has led to the collapse of both citizens and fighters’ morale, and has naturally led to withdrawal from some neighbourhoods. He continued by saying “As for talk of the military fall of the city, this is incorrect considering that the regime does not control more than 18% of Aleppo”.

The director of the Free Aleppo Health Directorate Abdelbasset Ibrahim said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the situation in the city is going from bad to worse” and pointed out that “the wounded are dying in the streets because we are unable to save them”. He continued by saying “More than 50 women and children were killed in one place.”