Last Thursday, Russian warplanes began bombing four rebel-held villages northeast of Aleppo. The next day, at 4:30 AM, regime artillery forces in the Sheikh Najjar Industrial Zone in northeast Aleppo city launched their own strike against the same four villages, as well as shelling Ahdath Prison and the Syria-Turkey Free Trade Zone.
These points, approximately 12km northeast of the city’s center, are all coveted by the regime, rebels and the Islamic State. Northeast Aleppo’s towns, villages and commercial facilities, including al-Ahdath Prison, the Syria-Turkey Free Trade Zone and a sprawling cement plant, make for hard-to-capture positions, as many are located on high ground.
By Friday, the rebels found their forces suddenly trapped. Caught between a Russian-backed regime offensive moving north on Friday, and an Islamic State infantry assault moving south hours later, the rebels “had no choice but to abandon what seemed like an impossible defense,” said al-Jabha a-Shamiya commander Col. al-Kurdi.
The opportunistic Islamic State may have swung south to fill the post-strike void, capturing regime-bombed targets abandoned by fleeing rebel fighters on Friday morning, Ahmed Rahal, a Turkey-based military analyst and former regime commander, told Syria Direct on Monday.
