WEEKLY UPDATE
August 6, 2016
Dear Readers,Welcome to the weekly Syria Deeply newsletter. We’ve rounded up the most important stories and developments about Syria and the Syrians in order to bring you valuable news and analysis. But first, here is a brief overview of what happened this week:Monday marked the passing of the deadline to resume peace talks for a political transition in Syria. The Geneva-based talks did not resume this week, nor was a cease-fire agreed to. Instead, two major players in the Syrian conflict did speak about the possibility that Syria could be partitioned before the end of the war.Just before the weekend, the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, expressed his doubts that Syria would remain one country in the future. Less than a week later, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, voiced a similar opinion, saying that sectarian fighting in the region could lead to the partitioning of Syria and Iraq.

The battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, continued this week. Residents of the now-besieged eastern part of Aleppo city have been burning tires in a desperate effort to prevent warplanes from targeting civilians and opposition fighters on the front lines.

But fighting in Aleppo showed no signs of stopping by the week’s end. On Friday, the leader of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, issued two audio statements announcing that they had entered the third stage of their operation to break the siege in eastern Aleppo and promising “victory” for his “people in Aleppo.”

Nearly 300,000 people have been stuck in the eastern part of the city since Syrian and Russian forces cut off the last rebel supply route out of the city, Castello Road. Airstrikes have been near-constant, and Syrian government forces and their Russian allies used aircraft to target six medical facilities in opposition-held areas of Aleppo within one week, according to the global nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

Weekly Highlights:

Aleppo’s Healthcare in Critical Condition

Amid the blame game of warring parties in Aleppo, the healthcare system in Syria’s largest city is dying a slow and excruciating death. The week ending July 23-24 was the worst for medical facilities in opposition-controlled Aleppo in the history of the conflict. In government-controlled western Aleppo, physicians are fleeing and only three hospitals remain to serve 1.5 million residents.
A Free Syrian Army fighter walks through a street in the Amariya district in Aleppo. On the wall, someone has written “We will fight until the end [God willing]. AP/ Manu Brabo

Governing the Most Dangerous City in Syria

Aleppo has long been one of Syria’s most violent battlefields, but despite the ongoing fighting and clashes for control between various warring factions, local councils in opposition-held areas of the city continue to govern.
A Syrian man rides a motorcycle passing by a damaged building that was destroyed by airstrikes in Aleppo, Syria. Aleppo Media Center via AP

Attack in Jordan Leaves 70,000 Syrians Trapped in Desert Without Aid

Oxfam’s Camilla Jelbart Mosse spoke to Syria Deeply on the difficulties faced by aid organizations trying to reach 70,000 Syrians trapped in the desert after a suicide attack in June led Jordan to close its border and suspend aid deliveries.
Stranded Syrians carry water bottles at the Rukban border camp near northeast Jordan, on June 25, 2016. International aid organizations say little water and no food has reached the nearly 70,000 displaced Syrian stranded in the desert after Jordan sealed its border in response to a suicide attack on June 21. AP

Additional Reading:

For new reporting and analysis every weekday, visit www.newsdeeply.com/syria.
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Top image: Children in eastern Aleppo burn tires as residents of the besieged city attempt to create a smokescreen to confuse government and Russian airstrikes. Khaled Khaled, Syria Civil Defense/Aleppo Media Center photographer

Author: Impunity Watch Archive