Over the past 72 hours, ISIS has been making steady gains in northern Aleppo, thus capturing the villages of Tahmoul, Jariz Kafrah, Fayruziyah, Tilal Al-Hussein, and Dudiyan.
Dudiyan represents the 3rd most important town to isolated rebel forces in northern Aleppo; the loss of this town has the armed Syrian Opposition reduced to a last ditch line of defence and foothold at the cities of Azaz and Mare’.
While rebel fighters have reopened the border corridor which was temporarily cut by ISIS, their forces have been greatly pushed back since the initial rebel advances along the border.
With the Islamic State on the advance, their fighters are now less than 6 kilometers from the eastern gates of Azaz. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters are also keen to capture the rebel-held border city as their troops are less than 3 kilometers west of the site.
Despite the backing of Turkish artillery and warplanes of the US-led coalition, rebel fighters face a very real possibility of losing the entire enclave under their control in northern Aleppo.
Now, rebel commanders must either order their troops to fight to the last drop of blood or attempt to broker a regional peace deal with ISIS.
Otherwise, rebels could retreat across the Turkish border and possibly redeploy to Idlib which is largely controlled by Jaish al-Fateh, a coalition of Islamist rebel factions.
13 - 13Shares
Be Civil
This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion
Please treat this discussion with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.
Make it better
Improve the Discussion
Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
Now the hard part!
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.