The Battle of Aleppo (Arabic: مَعْرَكَةُ حَلَبَ, romanized: Maʿrakat Ḥalab) was a major military confrontation in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria by urban area, between the Syrian opposition militias (such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Levant Front and Al-Nusra Front) against the Ba'athist Syrian government and army, supported by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and other Shia militant groups backed by the IRGC, and other pro-government Syrian and Palestinian militias, and against the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG). The battle began on 19 July 2012 and was part of the Syrian civil war. A stalemate that had been in place for four years finally ended in July 2016, when Ba'athist government troops closed the rebels' last supply line into Aleppo with the support of Russian airstrikes. In response, rebel forces launched unsuccessful counteroffensives in September and October that failed to break the government's siege of the rebel-held eastern half of the city; in November, government forces, allied with Russia and bolstered by YPG forces, embarked on a decisive campaign that resulted in the recapture of all of Aleppo by December 2016. The Syrian government victory was widely seen as a turning point in the civil war.
The large-scale devastation of the battle and its importance led combatants to name it the "mother of battles" or "Syria's Stalingrad". The battle was marked by widespread violence against civilians, repeated targeting of hospitals and schools (mostly by pro-government air forces but also to a lesser extent by the rebels), as well as indiscriminate bombardment and shelling of civilian areas from all sides. It was also marked by the inability of the international community to resolve the conflict peacefully. The UN special envoy to Syria proposed to end the battle by giving rebel-held East Aleppo autonomy, but this was rejected by the Assad government. Hundreds of thousands of residents were displaced both internally and externally by the battle and efforts to provide aid to civilians or to facilitate evacuation were routinely disrupted by continued combat and mistrust between the opposing sides.
All parties to the battle have been widely condemned by the UN and human rights organizations for engaging in atrocities and violations of international humanitarian law. Pro-Assad forces and their allies engaged in indiscriminate aerial bombardment of residential neighborhoods, including systemically dropping barrel bombs and cluster munitions, as well as conducting "double-tap" airstrikes on civilians and rescue workers—a tactic mostly attributed to Russian aviation. Simultaneously, rebel factions indiscriminately targeted civilian areas with rocket and mortar attacks, including with improvised artillery that fired repurposed gas-canister mortars (or "hell cannons") conducted suicide car bombings, and were accused of using human shields by forcibly preventing civilians from leaving areas they controlled. Both government and opposition factions were accused of using chemical weapons executing forced displacement, engaging in torture and summary executions of civilians and POWs, and weaponizing starvation as a tactic of war by blockading food, medicine and other essentials from civilian populations at different points during the battle. Across front lines, government forces, opposition militias and the SDF were all implicated in sniper fire targeting civilians. Following the 2016 Ba'athist government offensive in Aleppo, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described the bombardments and devastating siege of East Aleppo as "crimes of historic proportions".
After four years of fighting, the battle was one of the bloodiest battles of the Syrian Civil War, leaving over 31,000 people dead in the city and the rest of the province, almost a tenth of the estimated overall war casualties at that time. The siege also resulted in the severe destruction of the Old City of Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. An estimated 33,500 buildings have been either damaged or destroyed. It is considered one of the worst urban battles fought in the 21st century, due to its length and destruction.
Background
In 2011, Aleppo was Syria's largest city, with a population of 2.5 million people. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has been described by Time as Syria's commercial capital. Author Diana Darke has written that "The city has long been multi-cultural, a complex mix of Kurds, Iranians, Turkmen, Armenians and Circassians overlaid on an Arab base in which multi-denominational churches and mosques still share the space."
Nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad began on 15 March 2011, as part of the Arab Spring. Anti-government protests were held in Aleppo in August 2011, including the city's Sakhour district. Local activists reported two protesters were killed by security forces during a raid in Sakhour neighborhood. However, anti-government protests in Aleppo were widely characterized as rare and small during this period, as most of the city remained undisturbed and supportive of the Syrian government. Throughout 2011, large government-organized rallies in support of Assad also occurred. On 11 October 2011, a large rally in support of Bashar al-Assad was held in Saadallah al-Jabiri Square. According to Syrian state media, more than 1.5 million attended the rally, and it was among the largest held in Syria.
More regular protests only began in Aleppo in the spring of 2012, including demonstrations organized by students at the University of Aleppo in May 2012. Student activists were reportedly attacked by security forces and violently clashed with pro-government students. However, Aleppo retained considerable government support throughout much of 2012, until 19 July 2012, when rebel fighters from the northern countryside violently penetrated into the city, joining with rebels operating in the city's south, to which the government responded with heavy-handed bombardments.
On 16 February 2012, the UN General Assembly issued a resolution with a vote of 137 in favour, 12 against, and 17 abstentions, and called on Syria "to immediately put an end to all human rights violations and attacks against civilians."
Combatants
At the beginning of the Battle of Aleppo, rebels reportedly had between 6,000 and 7,000 fighters in 18 battalions. The largest rebel group was the Islamist Al-Tawhid Brigade—a brigade in the overarching umbrella movement of the Free Syrian Army, which was initially composed of army defectors. Most of Aleppo's rebels however, came from the northern Aleppo countryside, from rural towns such as Al-Bab, Mare', Azaz, Tel Rifaat and Anadan. On 19 November 2012, the rebel fighters—particularly Al-Tawhid Brigade and Al-Nusra Front—initially rejected the newly formed Syrian National Coalition. However, the next day the rebels withdrew their rejection.
Residents of Aleppo reportedly accused the rebels of using civilian homes for shelter. By December, the various rebel brigades were commonly looting for supplies; they often switched their loyalties to groups that had more to share. This new approach led to the killing of at least one rebel commander following a dispute; fighters retreating with their loot caused the loss of a frontline position and the failure of an attack on a Kurdish neighborhood. The common rebel practice of looting and occupation of civilian houses cost the rebel fighters much popular support, and even led some civilians to support President Assad.
Islamic extremists and foreign fighters, many of whom were experienced and came from the ongoing insurgency in neighboring Iraq, also joined the battle. Jihadists reportedly came from across the Muslim world. Jacques Bérès, a French surgeon who treated wounded fighters, reported a significant number of foreign fighters, most of whom had Islamist goals and were not directly interested in Bashar al-Assad. They included Libyans, Chechens and Frenchmen. Bérès contrasted the situation in Aleppo with that in Idlib and Homs, where foreign forces were not as common. Some FSA brigades cooperated with Mujahideen fighters. By 2016, the rebel factions still included internationally recognized terrorist groups such as Al-Nusra Front; they numbered 1,000 fighters in October 2016.
The Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which by April 2013 joined the Syrian Civil War in support for President al-Assad, also took part in the battle starting in June 2013, and was also designated as a terrorist group by some international organizations and states. They were joined later by other Shiite militias backed by the IRGC from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Syrian Shiite villages of Nubl and Zahraa in the northern Aleppo countryside, particularly in the latter part of the battle.
The Syrian government and army also had many Sunni fighters fighting alongside it, complicating the sectarian narrative for the conflict. These include auxiliary and tribal militias recruited into the National Defense Forces (NDF) and the Local Defense Forces (LDF), a phenomenon unique to Aleppo, whose fighters were recruited from both the city and rural towns in Aleppo's southern countryside, such as the Liwa al-Baqir from the Baggara tribe, which maintained close relations with Iran, despite being Sunni. Other primarily Sunni militias include the Palestinian Liwa al-Quds, recruited from the Handarat and Neirab refugee camps, as well as the nominally secular Ba'ath Brigades, which were founded in Aleppo by the regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party whose membership was also mostly Sunni. The Ba'ath Brigades and Liwa al-Quds both had thousands members each at their height, and spearheaded key battles and frontlines in the city.
The government retained much of its support in Aleppo during the initial battle; in August 2012 a rebel commander was quoted by The Guardian as saying "around 70% of Aleppo city is with the regime". As the fighting dragged on however, Assad lost support from much of Aleppo's wealthy class. In October 2012, CBS News reported that 48 elite businessmen who were the primary financiers for the government switched sides to finance the rebels. By March 2013, with the reported help of some of these businessmen, "some 1,000 factories" in Aleppo were reportedly looted, their machinery, goods and other equipment transferred to Turkey "with the full knowledge and facilitation of the Turkish government". In January 2013, the head of Aleppo's Chamber of Industry Fares Shehabi accused rebels of collaborating with Turkey in stripping Aleppo's factories of their equipment. The industry body filed a lawsuit in March 2013 accusing the Turkish government of systemically "looting" Syrian industry.
Aleppo was the first time the Syrian Arab Army engaged in urban warfare. They divided their forces into groups of 40 soldiers each, armed mostly with automatic rifles, anti-tank rockets and artillery; tanks and helicopters were only used for support. In August 2012, the army deployed its elite units. After rebel forces executed Zeino al-Berri, tribal leader of Al-Berri tribe in the same month, the Berri tribe joined the fight against the rebels.
Initially, Aleppo's Christian community tried to avoid taking sides in the conflict. However, many Christians supported the Army and some formed militias aligned with the government following the capture of their quarters by the Syrian Army. Many Christian Armenians also supported the Syrian Army. Some of Aleppo's Armenians claimed Turkey supported the FSA to attack Armenians and Arab Christians. In 2012, one Armenian militia had around 150 fighters.
At the beginning of the battle, Aleppo's Kurds formed armed groups, most notably the Saladin Ayubi Brigade, which worked with the opposition. Units of the Kurdish Front, part of the FSA and allied with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), were formed later in 2013. The PYD had poor relations with both sides. Its armed wing, People's Protection Units (YPG) opted for neutrality, stayed out of Arab areas and insisted the FSA stay out of the Kurdish area. They did not initially fight the Syrian Army unless attacked. The Kurdish areas in Aleppo mainly came under PYD control. At various points earlier on in the conflict, the Kurds joined the opposition against pro-government forces. However, the YPG-controlled neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud was often under siege by both Syrian government forces and the rebels. In September 2015, the rebels accused the YPG of collaborating with the government and began shelling Sheikh Maqsoud. Between November and December 2015, the conflict between the rebels and US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the rest of Aleppo province escalated. Truce attempts largely failed to stop the fighting. The situation escalated in February 2016, when the SDF followed up on advances by the Syrian Armed Forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, and they themselves took territory north of Aleppo city from the rebels during the government offensive.
Starting in late September 2015, Russian warplanes carried out their first attacks in Syria. The Russian bombing campaign included strikes against rebel forces in Aleppo.
Course of the battle
2012: Initial rebel attack and capture of Eastern Aleppo
Gunfire between rebels and security forces broke out in and around Salaheddine, a district in the city's southwest, on the night of 19 July 2012.
In late July and early August 2012, the FSA continued its offensive in Aleppo, with both sides suffering a high level of casualties. Rebel commanders said their main aim was to capture the city center. On 30 July, the rebels seized a strategic checkpoint in Anadan, a town north of Aleppo, gaining a direct route between the city and the Turkish border—an important rebel supply base. They also captured Al-Bab, an army base northeast of the city. Later, rebels attacked the air base at Minakh, 30 km (19 miles) northwest of Aleppo, with arms and tanks captured at the Anadan checkpoint. Opposition forces continued to gain territory in the city, controlling most of eastern and southwestern Aleppo, including Salaheddine and parts of Hamdaniyeh. They continued to target security centers and police stations as clashes erupted near the Air Force intelligence headquarters in Aleppo's northwestern district Zahraa. Rebels over-ran several police stations and posts in the central and southern districts of Bab al-Nerab, Al-Miersa and Salhain, seizing a significant quantity of arms and ammunition.
2013: Advances and counter-advances
In December 2012, Al-Nusra Front unilaterally declared a no-fly zone and threatened to shoot down commercial aircraft, alleging that the government was using them to transport loyalist troops and military supplies. After multiple attacks on Aleppo International Airport, all flights were suspended on 1 January 2013. The following month, the rebels seized Umayyad Mosque; and during the battle, the mosque's museum caught fire and its ceiling collapsed.
On 9 June, the Syrian Army announced the start of "Operation Northern Storm", an attempt to recapture territory in and around the city. Between 7 and 14 June, army troops, government militiamen and Hezbollah fighters launched the operation. Over a one-week period, government forces advanced in the city and the countryside, pushing back the rebels. However, according to an opposition activist, on 14 June the situation started reversing after rebels halted an armored reinforcement column from Aleppo that was heading for two Shiite villages northwest of the city.