Syria continues to send more and more troops to Aleppo in preparation for massive battle on Friday o

[smurfy]

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18994124[/url]

[quote=BBC News][B]Syrian rebels in Aleppo have begun stockpiling ammunition and medical supplies as government forces prepare outside the city for a major battle.[/B]

Artillery and helicopter gunships have resumed attacking rebel targets and 14 people have been killed, activists say.

Troops and tanks are said to be ringing the city and reinforcements are reportedly on their way to join them.

In Damascus, activists said the army had pounded the capital's last rebel-held areas and 20 civilians had died.

Five children and four women were killed, according to London-based pro-opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, when shells hit the Yalda area. Helicopters also attacked the nearby district of Hajar al-Aswad.

The government has said its forces are trying to dislodge the "remnants of mercenary terrorist groups".

[B]Checkpoints and snipers[/B]

In Syria's commercial hub of Aleppo, rebels have set up checkpoints and sniper positions and claim to be in control of half of the city.

A Syrian security source was quoted by AFP news agency as saying that special forces had begun arriving on the edges of Aleppo in readiness for a "generalised counter-offensive on Friday or Saturday".

A similar account has emerged from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which talks of reinforcements arriving from the main Damascus to Aleppo road to the south.

Columns of troops and tanks are also thought to be travelling from the city of Hama, and from the border posts with Turkey in Idlib province.

Aleppo is the country's commercial capital, and key to the battle to control the north of the country.

Street battles have been reported throughout the city for days, as rebels try to hold on to neighbourhoods captured in an offensive that began at the weekend.

Although it was relatively quiet on Thursday, activists said artillery fire could be heard in the Salah al-Din neighbourhood in the southwest of the city and clashes in Tariq al-Bab in the east had led to two rebels being killed.

Foreign journalists operate under heavy restrictions in Syria so claims made by either side are difficult to verify.

The BBC's Ian Pannell near the city says thousands of people are leaving as fears grow that an intense battle is looming.

He says the rebels are reinforcing their ranks with more fighters, medical supplies, and ammunition such as Kalashnikov rifles.

Talal al-Mayhani, an activist with connections in the rebel movement in Aleppo, said the battle for the city was likely to play out in a similar way to an earlier battle in the capital Damascus, when rebels took control of large parts of the city before being forced to withdraw in the face of a government offensive.

Reporter Laurent Van der Stockt from French newspaper Le Monde told the BBC that Free Syrian Army (FSA) commanders in Aleppo were full of confidence but were lacking weapons.

"A commander told me this morning they attacked a convoy and destroyed 10 armoured vehicles."

Luke Harding of the Guardian newspaper, 50km (30mi) west of Aleppo, told the BBC that much of the rest of Aleppo province was in rebel hands but it was an exaggeration to say they were in control of half of the city.

"It's true they're in the southern part of the city and the northeast. Tactically, they're doing guerrilla-style attacks and they can melt away quite quickly."

In Damascus, where government forces have largely repelled a sustained assault by rebels, state TV reported more clashes in the southern district of Qadam.

The report showed army troops firing intensively as they moved into heavily damaged streets.

The violence also spread to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, where activists said street battles had taken place between rebels and soldiers.

More than 16,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests in March 2011.

Repeated diplomatic attempts to stop the violence have foundered, with the UN Security Council bitterly divided.

Thousands of refugees have already sought shelter in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

And conditions throughout the country have worsened as the fighting has spread and intensified in the two main cities in recent weeks.

[img]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2012/newsspec_4009/img/aleppo.gif[/img][/quote]

There is little doubt that the army is going to win this battle, but it will be interesting to see what happens elsewhere with so many troops diverted to Aleppo. The redeployment of troops to defend Damascus already allowed rebels to capture border posts and parts of Aleppo, so with so many troops now concentrated in just these two cities there may be opportunities for major rebel gains elsewhere in the country. It's possible that the Syrian Army is no longer strong enough to hold down the entire country; it may have to let less populous areas go if it wants to hold on to the cities.

[Indyclone77]

The Rebels are fighting a war of attrition while the Government is still trying to go for an all out crushing charge

[Rather Not]

[QUOTE=Indyclone77;36951153]The Rebels are fighting a war of attrition while the Government is still trying to go for an all out crushing charge[/QUOTE]

Yeah...

[quote]General Mustafa al-Sheikh told Reuters that up to 20,000 soldiers in total had deserted the army since the beginning of the conflict, and that the FSA had taken control of large swathes of land. He said in an interview on 12 January 2012 : [B]"If we get 25,000 to 30,000 deserters mounting guerrilla warfare in small groups of six or seven it is enough to exhaust the army in a year to a year-and-a-half, even if they are armed only with rocket-propelled grenades and light weapons", [/B]and also mentioned that the majority of army deserters had gone to be with their families, rather than join the rebellion.[/quote]

Though you have to wonder as to how accurate that prediction is.