Syrian opposition chief visited rebel-held suburbs of the embattled city of Aleppo for the first time Sunday as fighters trying to oust President Bashar Assad made significant strategic advances in the heavily contested northeast.
Assad, meanwhile, lashed out at the West for sending aid to those trying to oust him, delivering a blistering rebuke to Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement earlier this week that the U.S. will for the first time provide medical aid and other non-lethal assistance directly to the fighters in addition to $60 million in assistance to Syria’s political opposition.
Aleppo, the nation’s largest city, has been a major front in the nearly 2-year-old conflict. Government forces and rebels have been locked in a stalemate there since July.
Mouaz al-Khatib met Sunday with Syrians living in the two rebel-held Aleppo suburbs of Manbah and Jarablus, a statement said. The stated goal of his trip to Manbah and Jarablus — the first since he was named the leader of the Syrian National Coalition late last year — was to inspect living conditions.
But his foray into the edge of Aleppo also could be an attempt to boost his group’s standing among civilians and fighters on the ground, many of whom see the Western-backed political leadership in exile as irrelevant and out of touch.
The areas along the country’s northern border with Turkey are largely ruled by rival brigades and fighter units that operate autonomously and have no links to the political opposition.
Al-Khatib’s visit came as rebels captured a police academy west of Aleppo after an eight-day battle that left more than 200 Syrian soldiers and rebels dead, activists said. Anti-Assad fighters also stormed a central prison in the northern city of Raqqa and captured the Rabiya border crossing in the east along Syria’s border with Iraq, activists said. Iraqi officials said the crossing in the country’s northern Ninevah province has been closed.
The territorial gains are a significant blow to Assad, although his forces have regained control of several villages and towns along a key highway near Aleppo International Airport — an achievement that could signal the start of a decisive battle for Syria’s commercial capital.
