Battle for Syria’s Largest City Rages as 200,000 Flee
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JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images(ALEPPO, Syria) — This weekend’s bombardment of Aleppo by Syrian forces using tanks, attack helicopters and heavily artillery against rebel positions has resulted in at least 200,000 civilians fleeing the country’s largest city.
Last week, the Free Syrian Army and its allies took large portions of Syria’s commercial hub, their largest gain yet in the 17-month-long conflict that has cost 19,000 lives and left President Bashar al-Assad’s regime teetering on the brink of collapse.
However, al-Assad remains determined to hold on, ignoring the international community’s call for a ceasefire.
The battle for Aleppo could wind up being the turning point in the civil war for either side and as a result, the fighting will likely be the fiercest of all since it initially began with peaceful protests in March 2011 to call for Democratic reforms.
In the short-term, the United Nations is faced with yet another humanitarian crisis as people seeking shelter from violence are finding food, mattresses, blankets, hygiene supplies and drinking water in short supplies.
While rebels forces are urging the U.N. to call an emergency session on Aleppo in what they say has the makings of a massacre, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem met with his government’s allies in Tehran to declare that those opposing his government’s military in Aleppo “will definitely be defeated.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio