Abdul Aziz al-Khalifa, Baladi News
The latest battle of Aleppo, through which the most important military centers of the Syrian regime in the north were controlled, formed a strong and unprecedented strike against the Syrian regime and which was named by many military figures and field activists as "The mother of Syrian Battles" for the importance of it and its consequences.
The operation of breaking the siege imposed on Aleppo, which was conducted in a very unique way, and creating gaps within the enemy lines represent one of the strategic and tactical lessons which will be taught in military schools and academies over the coming decades, as the power that is to break the siege and create a permanent or temporarily gap usually implement the operations of breaking and attacking against the weakest points of the cordon or the existed defense line or turning around it in the smartest plans.
The Center of Power
The operation carried out by Jaish al-Fatah in Aleppo targeted the regime's military center of power in the city, which is at the same time the center of human and arm power that contains the largest arsenal of weapons and ammunitions.
The regime's loss of the Artillery compound means losing one of its most important fortified positions which used to present a special arm power for it, as it used to deploy more than 80 artilleries in the College alone, which made it effective regarding the course of the battles in a circle of at least 80 km around the Artillery College.
The regime's loss of this arm power is very effective in the battles of the northern part of Syria as a whole and mainly the battles of Aleppo. Actually, the regime no longer has any center similar to the Artillery College but the Defense Factories firstly, then the Military Engineering Faculty, which will be over-pressured as they will be demanded to supply the regime with arm power during its battles to cover for the artillery from the compound. This will make it harder for the regime to defend the rest of the areas in Aleppo, which seem to be the next target of the rebels.
East and West
The operation of breaking the siege and expanding the break achieved by the rebels is considered very important, reaching the stage of breaking the siege and creating a safe place to prevent its recurrence, which makes it the first stage before continuing the military operations that will head westward mainly towards the Military Engineering Faculty "the Military Academy", and eastward aiming at expanding the break and preventing to close it by the arm power of the regime units. The Water Purification Plant and before it the Cement Factory are considered important areas to be controlled in order to guarantee the passage and prevent any counter-attacks by the regime from this sector.
The momentum of the battles and the rapid advancement of the rebels as well as the huge quantity of ammunitions, weapons and materiel, which they gained from the Artilleries Compound means that the rebels are now able to advance in Aleppo freely, as they have the upper hand now, which make them determine when and where the attack will be. The regime is currently unable to carry out effective breaking operations in the rest of the points in order to disperse the rebels, making it moves to the defensive operations and concentrate it troops in the areas attacked by the rebels in order to prevent their fall.
The rebels now have the advantage of concurrently attacking from inside and outside of Aleppo, as all the western neighborhoods of the city are actually located between two areas controlled by the rebels, which increases the possibility of the attack from two axes and disperses the regime's defenses and accelerates the fall of the areas.
This will make controlling Aleppo as a whole by the rebels an achievable mission, and which is the main objective of the operation according to what "Abu Yusuf al-Muhajer", the commander in Ahrar al-Sham movement, has stated to Baladi News.
Western Aleppo
The areas controlled by the regime west of Aleppo extend between the neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud, which is controlled by the Kurdish militias allied with the regime and which provided them with human and arm support through the battles of closing al-Castello road, reaching to the region called The 3000 apartment project.
The situation of regime forces in these areas is not enviable, as they are almost trapped by the rebels from inside and outside of the city, especially with losing their arming center of power represented in the Artillery compound, which used to provide the artillery and missile cover to regime forces within the city of Aleppo, which is now dropped upon the remaining units in Aleppo such as the faculty of military engineering and al-Zahraa artillery and other artillery batteries and launchers scattered along Aleppo, which now have to work in two directions. The first direction is to secure the arm coverage of regime forces in the neighborhoods of Aleppo which are currently under attack, while the second one is to defend against the rebels' current and future attacks with the beginning of the attack on the neighborhoods remaining under regime's control. Those neighborhoods will be greatly affected by the expected fall of the faculty of military engineering, al-Bohouth al-Ilmia and al-Zahraa artillery that are considered the most important military positions of the regime west of Aleppo, in addition to the branch of aerial intelligence which controlling al-Zahraa artillery is the key to seize control over it.
The Domino Effect
The regime has built its military cordon around the south and west of Aleppo forming a group of military and security points and locations which are geographically semi-connected which provide mutual protection and control those areas militarily and geographically. However, against its all expectations, its main center of power in Aleppo was the first to fall of this defensive cordon, which means that the rest of it will consequently fall easier.
The battle of the Artillery compound took only a few days of direct action and another few weeks of preparation which means that the fall of a security branch for example will not take more than a few hours; 48 at most, especially with the collapse among regime forces who even left their arms back while fleeing the college compound and al-Ramouseh which led the regime to execute some of them in an attempt to force the rest to fight.
The battle of Aleppo has been launched and it will never stop till the rebels seize control over the whole strategic city which is considered the key to fully control the whole northern part of Syria, then storming into the middle region of the country; Hama then Homs, which means disconnecting Damascus that is controlled by the regime from the coastal region which is considered its center of power and its alternative plan in case it lost the capital.