28 October 2016•Update: 29 October 2016
By Mohamed Misto and Essam al-Lahham
ALEPPO, Syria
Opposition fighters staged a major assault on a number of Syrian regime positions in Aleppo on Friday, marking the start of a fresh campaign aimed at breaking the ongoing siege of the city.
Armed opposition factions fighting under the umbrella of the Jaish al-Fatah ("Army of Conquest") struck regime forces stationed at southeastern Aleppo’s Al-Nayrab airbase, the opposition Harakat Ahrar al-Sham group said in a twitter statement.
According to the statement, Jaish al-Fatah fighters also attempted to storm the Al-Assad district west of Aleppo after breaking through the regime’s initial line of defense.
"All opposition factions are united in their determination to win this battle," Abdel-Moneim Zainuddin, a coordinator between opposition factions based in northern Syria, told Anadolu Agency.
The new campaign, Zainuddin went on to assert, "will be different from its predecessors" in terms of both combat-readiness and the quality of weapons employed.
"This operation, which aims to break the siege of Aleppo, will pose a serious challenge to Iran and Russia, the regime’s primary supporters," he added.
According to Zainuddin, an unprecedented number of opposition fighters -- he did not say how many -- had turned out to take part in what he described as the decisive "battle for Aleppo".
