MESOP ALEPPO UPDATE TODAY : Pro-Assad Alliance – We Will Capture Aleppo Before Trump Is President

November 30 – By Scott Lucas – eaworldview – A “senior official” has said the pro-Assad alliance intends to take all of Syria’s largest city Aleppo before Donald Trump becomes US President on January 20.“The Russians want to complete the operation before Trump takes power,” said the official.Moscow initially set the timetable because of its fears that Hillary Clinton would take a tougher line against the Russian-regime strategy than the Obama Administration, seeking to established protected zones. However, Trump’s surprise victory — and his likely support of Russian President Vladimir Putin and thus Syria’s Bashar al-Assad — has not altered the scenario.

Pro-Assad forces — Iranians, Hezbollah, Iraqi and Palestinian militia, Russian warplanes, and Syrian military, paramilitary and militia units — have captured about 1/3 of the opposition-held territory in eastern Aleppo city since Saturday.The official, whose nationality was not revealed, said the next phase in the campaign could be more difficult as the forces try to occupy more densely populated areas.

Although an estimated 20,000 civilians have fled the fighting — some into regime-held areas, some into the mainly-Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud — about 250,000 remain. Those on the move on Tuesday faced Russian-regime airstrikes on uncaptured parts of eastern Aleppo, with at least 25 killed and dozens wounded in an attack on Bab al-Neyrab.

Marianne Gasser of the Red Cross, which gave the estimate of 20,000 who have fled, said on Tuesday, “With no end in sight to the fighting or indeed a wider peace being reached, thousands more civilians face a daily struggle to survive.”Russia and the Assad regime have not allowed aid into eastern Aleppo city since they imposed a siege in late August. The UN distributed its final food rations almost three weeks ago.Almost all medical facilities have been put out of service by Russian-regime bombing. The White Helmets rescuers can no longer retrieve dead and wounded, with two of their four centers bombed and no more fuel for vehicles.

A medic said:The situation is very bad. There’s intense fear of collective annihilation.

“This week I’ve changed locations three times. In the shelter, we had dead people who we couldn’t take out because the bombardment was so intense.The Russian Defense Ministry, which put out the unsupported claim that more than 80,000 civilians have left east Aleppo, insisted, “These Syrians were used as human shields for long years in Aleppo by terrorists of all allegiances.”

Meanwhile, residents are expressing fears for local men who have been seized by pro-Assad forces.Families and friends said up to 500 men had been taken as the offensive captured the Masakan Hanano district and other areas last weekend.

“They took my nephew and my uncle, one was 22 and the other 61,” said one man who fled. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again.”

Hisham al-Skeif, a member of a local council in eastern Aleppo, said on Tuesday that civic activists had explored the idea of using so-called safe routes to leave the area: For the civilians, they have the choice whether they want to leave or stay, but for those of us who don’t trust the regime, we have no choice. I can’t turn my back on my city. www.mesop.de