Syrian regime reportedly showing restraint in Aleppo
Shelling may be less intense than what was seen in Homs
BEIRUT – The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad appears to be taking a relatively restrained approach to the rebel presence in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, where fighting was reported to be continuing Tuesday, even as Syrian government media claimed to have pushed the rebels out of a key neighborhood.
“We haven’t seen the sort of intense shelling we’ve seen in other parts of the country,” said a Beirut-based researcher for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, who agreed to discuss what she and other investigators were hearing about the battle inside the city only on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns. “I think the government recognizes it has a lot of support in Aleppo.”
The researcher said the government’s reaction to rebel infiltration of Aleppo, a city of more than 2 million only 30 miles from the border with Turkey, was in stark contrast to the Syrian military’s weeks-long targeting of rebel-occupied neighborhoods in Homs, the country’s third-largest city and a bastion of anti-Assad sentiment.
“Compared to Homs, where we had indiscriminate shelling on the level of crimes against humanity, they are showing restraint,” the researcher said.
Casualty figures released by anti-Assad groups also suggest that while a pitched battle had been expected for Aleppo, the conflict there is being outpaced by fighting elsewhere in the country. On Monday, according to the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, 23 people were killed in Aleppo, while 55 died in fighting in Damascus and its suburbs.
Aleppo is the country’s commercial and manufacturing hub, but business there has ground to a halt.
The lead government unit pressing the Aleppo counteroffensive is the Syrian army’s Fourth Division, a unit commanded by Maher Assad, the president’s younger brother. The rebels have been united under a command that includes Malik al Kurdi, a defected army officer who is part of the leadership of the Free Syrian Army, the Turkey-based umbrella under which most of the rebel groups operate.