SyriaU.S. charges Syria helping ISIS advance on Aleppo, Turkish border crossings
The U.S. embassy in Syria posted a series of tweets on the embassy’s official account charging that the Syrian military is carrying out attacks in and around Aleppo with the aim weakening the moderate rebel forces and helping Islamic State improve its positions around the city. On Sunday, following the Syrian air force’s attacks on the moderate rebel position around Aleppo, Islamic State fighters were able to push back the moderate rebels from some positions north of the city, near the Turkish border. The Syrian military’s attacks and Islamic State’s moves on the ground had a strategic purpose: to cut the supply lines between Turkey and the moderate rebels, thus preventing Turkey from rushing additional military aid to the rebels.
The U.S. embassy in Syria posted a series of tweets on the embassy’s official account charging that the Syrian military is carrying out attacks in and around Aleppo with the aim weakening the moderate rebel forces and helping Islamic State improve its positions around the city.
“Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of ISIL’s advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population,” a post on the U.S. Embassy Syria Twitter account said late yesterday (Monday) (the U.S. government is using the correct English acronym ISIL for Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which is the transliteration of the organization’s name in Arabic).
In the last few months, the moderate rebel forces have been more effective in their fight against the Syrian military and its Hezbollah allies, capturing areas in north Syria and advancing into the Alawite enclave in the country’s north-west, placing the major Alawite city of Latakia within the rebels’ artillery range.
