Syria: Rebels confident of taking control of Aleppo from army forces

SYRIAN rebels aim to push ­towards central Aleppo, capturing the whole of the country’s biggest city within days despite being outgunned by president Bashar al-Assad’s forces, a local rebel commander said.

Yesterday, Colonel Abdel-Jabbar al-Oqaidi, who defected from the Syrian army six months ago, said government troops had tried for three days to capture the neighbourhood of Salaheddine in south-western Aleppo, and Mr Assad’s soldiers were increasingly demoralised.

The fight for Syria’s second city has become the focus of the rebellion against Mr Assad, with rebel fighters confronting government forces backed by artillery and helicopter gunships.

Speaking at an Aleppo school which has become a rebel base, Col Oqaidi said: “We don’t have goals for the coming months. We have goals for the coming days. Within days, God willing, Aleppo will be liberated.”

Describing the growing conflict which has engulfed Aleppo as “street war”, he said the rebel aim was to capture districts one by one and establish control over them, before taking more territory from the army.

“We secure our areas and then move to other neighbourhoods, pushing towards the city centre,” he said. “God willing, we will liberate Aleppo and its military and security sites.”

He added: “The regime’s capabilities are also being weakened. They can shell us from afar with tanks and helicopters. But inside their morale is zero.”

An unidentified Syrian army officer told state television on Sunday that his forces had recaptured Salaheddine, and the rest of the city would be under government control within days. But yesterday Syrian TV said the army was still chasing “armed terrorists” in Salaheddine.

Col Oqaidi said: “The regime has tried for three days to ­recapture Salaheddine but its ­attempts have failed and it has suffered heavy losses in human life, weapons and tanks. It has been forced to withdraw.”

The colonel, whose military uniform and boots contrasted with the T-shirts, frayed trousers and sandals worn by the fighters around him, was speaking in what appeared to be the head teacher’s office in the school commandeered by the rebels.

Down the hall, painted with brightly-coloured murals of children playing, men in undershirts were sleeping in the classrooms on mattresses, their rifles at their sides.

On the wall, names of rebel battalions were scrawled, along with graffiti by members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA): “A ruler who kills his people is a traitor” and “Watch out shabbiha, Alawites, the FSA is coming to Aleppo and to Syria”.

Mr Assad and many of his army officers are members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as are most of their allied shabbiha militiamen.

Col Oqaidi appeared relaxed and comfortable, and smiled frequently during the interview, but he delivered a blunt message: “You can’t stay with this ­regime and stand watching all the slaughter and shelling they have subjected this country to.”

Col Oqaidi also said rebels were working to bring a sense of order to the areas under their control – an arc which stretches from Salaheddine in the south-west to districts on the north-eastern fringe of the city.

“Once we control a neighbourhood we try to keep up administration. That means sending people over to ensure the electricity and water stay on”.