Syria Broadens Offensive

At WSJ, "Syrian Regime, Backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, Expands Ground Offensive to Aleppo":

Syrian pro-regime forces backed by Russian airstrikes have expanded their ground offensive to the strategic city of Aleppo, one of the clearest signs yet of how Russia’s recent military intervention has emboldened President Bashar al-Assad and his loyalists.

In the bitterly fought multi-sided war, Aleppo is among the most coveted prizes. Losing partial control of the city, which was once Syria’s largest and its commercial capital, was an embarrassment to the regime. But with the backing of Russian warplanes, Iranian forces and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Mr. Assad’s forces could now be in position to regain large parts of the city and the surrounding countryside.

“I suspect Assad always wanted to take back Aleppo because it is such an important city and retaking it has such strategic and symbolic importance,” said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based military and security think tank. “And it would deny the rebels a foothold in any major city.”

The battle for Aleppo, launched on Friday, is an extension of two weeks of other ground offensives in the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Homs aided by Iranian forces and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Mr. Assad is attempting to retake territory once considered out of his control, showing a new confidence with his growing international support.

Since Friday, the regime has netted a number of villages on the southern outskirts of the city and thousands of civilians are fleeing fighting in the area. On Sunday, the regime captured one additional village and U.S.-backed rebels destroyed two regime tanks using American-supplied weapons as they tried to stem the regime’s progress.

The regime appears to be advancing westward toward the strategic highway linking Aleppo with the capital Damascus, rebels said.

In a rare move, the offensive is being led by regime-allied Iranian fighters, according to Ahmad al-Ahmad, a spokesman for the moderate Islamist rebel group Faylaq al-Sham, which is involved in the battles.

Aleppo is about 30 miles south of the Turkish border and has been the site of battles between the rebels and regime since 2012. The countryside north of the city was one of the first areas where rebels gained a territorial foothold in the war, giving them access to border crossing with Turkey and a key road from the border that served as an important supply line.

The city of Aleppo is now divided in two, with an array of rebel factions controlling the eastern half and the regime holding the western half.

In July, Mr. Assad conceded that his forces were stretched too thin and could no longer defend the entire country, adding that priorities needed to be set. The acknowledgment came after years of desertions and draft dodgers and more than half the country slipping out of his control.

But Moscow’s intervention has allowed Mr. Assad to modify his earlier objective. Russian airstrikes are supporting his efforts to hold on to the stronghold around Damascus and to preserve a strategic corridor along the Lebanese border.

They are also aiding regime attempts to regain full control over the central provinces of Homs and Hama and the western region on the Mediterranean coast.

But Aleppo “is outside of the bounds one would think would be the point of restabilization for the regime,” said Christopher Kozak, a research analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, a think tank...

Keep reading.