The assault has raised the possibility that opposition forces could actually impose their own siege on government areas of the city. There, the more moderate opposition fighters now risk being subsumed or driven out by the militants. Abdulrazak criticised the United States for what he called a "lack of support" to opposition forces in Aleppo. The militants appear to have already begun setting up their own judicial councils and aid-distribution networks inside Aleppo, said Hassan Hassan, a Syria expert at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. The United States charged that Russia and Assad were using al-Nusra as a smokescreen to strike moderate opposition forces; Russia countered that it was hard to tell them apart.

Source: New Zealand Herald August 11, 2016 01:30 UTC