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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 07/28/2012 : 00:14:18
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Aleppo, Syria is an ancient city of over two million population. Wiki says:"Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it has been inhabited since perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC." It's more populous than Syria's capital, Damascus. (Syria itself has a population of about 22.5 million.) Aleppo is older than the Creationists' entire universe.
Aleppo, with Citadel in background.
From all accounts, Aleppo is about to become the central venue in the Syrian revolution, and perhaps the site of the bloodiest battles of the whole "Arab Spring". President Assad's forces are maneuvering toward Aleppo, and rebels of the Free Syrian Army are streaming in from the surrounding countryside.
The Assad regime's forces are much better equipped and trained. They can bring unopposed air power to bear on Aleppo. They have vast numbers of tanks and other armored vehicles. The Assad regime recently revealed it has "weapons of mass destruction," though it promised not to use them against rebels. The regime has been notoriously bad at keeping promises during this rebellion, however.
The rebels have spirit and good numbers, but they are lacking training, heavy weapons, and (I am only guessing here) discipline. On the other hand, they have an advantage in morale, especially since their suicide bombers recently blew up the national internal security headquarters in Damascus, killing the top internal spy chief and several other high regime officials. The morale of the Assad side is more questionable, with several high-level defections and continuing troop desertions to the rebel side.
It's anybody's guess as to who will win the coming Battle of Aleppo. It was the rebels who chose this city as a battlefield. Presumably, they think they know what they're doing. If they win there, it seems likely they rest of Syria will swing to their side against Assad. If they lose, they are not totally defeated, but will have demonstrated that they are not nearly strong enough to topple Assad, and Assad will have bought time. The regime has called the coming fight "the mother of all battles". (Seems we heard that phrase before.)
Either way, the fight in Aleppo promises to be a bloody and brutal urban battle. Both sides are utterly ruthless. It may well resemble the urban horror of the Battle of Stalingrad. This will not be pretty. Maybe we're lucky that CNN won't have its crews broadcasting it in HD.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/28/2012 00:27:58
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The Battle of Aleppo
