Opposition loses key Aleppo area as humanitarian crisis worsens

The battle for Aleppo has intensified in recent days, with opposition fighters losing key positions to Bashar al-Assad forces and the grave humanitarian crisis becoming worse. According to a Reuters report, the stalemate seems to be favoring the Assad regime. After holding up during a five-month siege, opposition defenses in the northern part of the enclave appear to have collapsed.

Reuters quoted the Syrian army and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying that, "The Syrian army and its allies drove opposition groups out of the strategically important area of eastern Aleppo yesterday in an accelerating attack that threatens to crush the opposition in Aleppo."

The Observatory also reported that the opposition groups had lost control of more than one-third of eastern Aleppo in recent days, with Syrian state TV reporting that the Assad regime and its allies have entered opposition-held areas in Aleppo.

Director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahman said, "The rebels have lost control of all neighborhoods in northeast Aleppo in their worst defeat since they seized half the city in 2012."

Residents in the besieged city say they are in horror as the Assad regime and Russian warplanes carry out aerial attacks. Reportedly, more than 6,000 civilians fled to government-controlled parts of Aleppo due to squalid living conditions on the eastern side of the city.

Civilians are suffering from food and water shortages and there is no electricity and no working hospital in eastern Aleppo.

According to one Syrian man living in Aleppo, "Conditions are too deplorable to describe. I can say that at least 350,000 people are trapped inside the city and are under bombardment every day. Civilian-occupied areas; homes, local bakeries and hospitals are being targeted. It is not true that Russia and the regime are targeting only armed fighters. They are just killing everyone," Khaled Khatib told Daily Sabah.

A total of 250,000 people are still reportedly trapped inside Aleppo and have no access to sanitary drinking water or food.

Several members of opposition forces have taken to social media, saying that if opposition groups are not supplied with anti-aircraft to defend the eastern half of the city an impending defeat would come as no surprise.

The long-standing issue which has been fervently discussed since the war broke out includes the opposition's appeal to the U.S. for man pads, a request which the U.S. denied, "Syria's Al-Watan daily, which is close to the government, said the army is advancing quickly. According to the daily, the next stage of the government's operation includes the 'dividing of the remaining area into security districts that can easily be controlled. These districts will be captured successively.' The advance would then 'Compel the gunmen to turn themselves [in]. ...or accept national reconciliation under the terms of the Syrian state.' Journalist Zouhir al-Shimale who is based in eastern Aleppo told Al-Jazeera that the city is in a 'constant collapse' as opposition-held neighborhoods continue falling to government forces," Al-Jazeera reported.

On the other hand, the Guardian claimed that, "It appears that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is planning to take Aleppo before the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in January, taking advantage of the political vacuum in the U.S. and Barack Obama's refusal to become directly involved."

In March 2011, Syrians were emboldened enough to raise their voice against Assad's dictatorship. However, the regime's response was not as peaceful as protesters expected and the country was subsequently dragged into a deadly civil war after opposition groups took up arms against the government.

The Syrian civil war has now entered its fifth year and has caused the deaths of more than 400,000 people with at least 100,000 still missing. The war has also left nearly 10 million people displaced. The vast majority of Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.

Humanitarian aid agencies and the U.N. have often criticized Western countries for not opening their borders to Syrian refugees. The most developed countries in the world reportedly have the least number of refugees.