Activists in eastern Aleppo said that the Free Syrian Army fighters on Monday retook control of several neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo that fell to regime forces and their allied Iranian-backed militias on Sunday night.
The FSA groups in eastern Aleppo rejected Russia’s demands that they leave the embattled eastern parts of the city, vowing “to fight to the last drop of their blood.”
In a swift counterattack on Monday, the FSA fighters pushed back regime forces and their allied foreign militias in Bustan Alqasr district, destroying armored vehicles belonging to the attacking forces. They also retook control of the neighborhood of Qaterji, most of the neighborhood of Muyassar, and the Ophthalmic Hospital in the neighborhoods of Qadi Askar.
Yasser Abdul Rahim, Commander of Fateh Aleppo Operations Room, confirmed to Smart News Network that the FSA fighters recaptured the Hawuz Roundabout area in eastern Aleppo after it briefly fell to regime forces.
Meanwhile, the US and UK have been holding talks to explore ways to airdrop food and medical supplies to eastern Aleppo and other besieged populations in Syria, the Guardian reported on Sunday.
The talks have been going on for months in Washington and have considered a broad range of possibilities, from parachute drops to creating an air bridge with drone flights.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that more than 250,000 people in besieged eastern Aleppo are facing dwindling supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel as a result of the suffocating siege imposed by Assad’s forces and the Iranian-backed foreign militias on the rebel-held parts of the city.
The Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies have continuously bombed the city since they announced the launch of a large-scale offensive in November 15.
All ten of eastern Aleppo’s hospitals are closed or barely functional, depriving thousands of people of access to life-saving trauma care, major surgeries, and treatment for other serious health conditions, the WHO warned. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office + Agencies)
