Saturday, November 29, 2014

Nicholas Blanford on feminist Syrian rebels

From Basim: "Although the rebels hold the city center, their supply line to territory under their control north of Aleppo is narrowing and increasingly at risk of being cut. The secular-leaning rebels in Aleppo have been weakened by the burden of fighting a two front war – one against the Syrian Army and another against the self-styled Islamic State, which is advancing toward the city from the east.

Rather than stop fighting, Mr. Assad's forces appear to be mustering along with members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah for a potential final strike against the rebels in Aleppo, according to diplomats in Beirut that asked not to be named.

“The regime has more limited capabilities than I think many people understand,” says Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute. “If you look at what’s happening in the south, it’s quite a different question to what’s happening in the north.”"