Chulov’s latest dispatch from near Aleppo

The Free Syrian Army has withdrawn all its main fighting units from its stronghold in the war-ravaged suburb of Salahedin in southern Aleppo.

The withdrawal was ordered just after sunrise on Thursday after a night of intensive shelling from planes and tanks on all three rebel frontlines. Commanders in Aleppo claimed the pullout was tactical and said a small force had remained behind to oppose any advance by regime forces.

However, the rebel move seems to mark a significant moment in the fight for control of southern Aleppo â€“ which has raged for more than two weeks, claiming several hundred casualties â€“ and laid the rest of the city to siege.

Shelling intensified on Thursday in other parts of Syria‘s second city, which had notionally been held by the FSA since it secured its foothold in Salahedin in late July.

The regime push had been widely expected earlier this week and rebels had vowed to defend their ground. However, commanders said the intensity of the shelling had meant their fighters now had too few opportunities to take cover.

Interview with Fatah brigade

Our colleague Mona Mahmood has been talking via Skype to Abu al-Qa’aqa, spokesman for the Fatah brigade in Aleppo. This is what he said:

I have just come out of Salahedin district in Aleppo to bring five martyrs from the Fatah brigade who were killed in the battles today and will be back soon. These martyrs are from Tel Rifaat town, 30km from Aleppo.

We are under heavy shooting by warplanes now. The shooting against the town started three days ago, a shell fell yesterday on one of the houses and killed 10 people. Their bodies were dismembered.

Today the warplanes are hitting the south-east part of Tel Rifaat. Every day two warplanes are coming here to bomb the town but they get very busy at night, beside the shooting which is coming from the airport here.

The population of Tel Rifaat is only 30,000 people but a lot of the people in Aleppo came here to escape the battles there. A large number of FSA from Tel Rifaat went to Aleppo to fight with the rebels there. That is why the Syrian army is shooting at the town. It is a sort of revenge for our support of the rebels there. Most of the men in the town here went to Aleppo to fight.

We went to Aleppo with a formation named al-Fatah. The Syrian army tried to break into Salahedin but they could not. We were able to blow up an armoured vehicle at sunset yesterday, but we have lost many martyrs in Salahedin today because of the heavy shooting by the Syrian army’s warplanes and mortars.

The Syrian army started to shoot the walls [of buildings] to get through and advance in Salahedin rather than fight face to face in the streets. The Syrian army was coming forward in Salahaddine by blowing up buildings and taking them as bases.

The Syrian army have deployed snipers on the top of buildings. We were completely surprised to find such a large number of snipers deployed in the morning, and they cost us a lot of martyrs.

We have confiscated a lot of weapons out of the battle we had lately in Andan. We are using them in Aleppo. The most powerful weapons we have are RPGs.

The FSA have pulled out of Street 15 in Salahedin today. We have retreated towards the park near Saad mosque. As soon as we left to take the martyrs to Tel Rifaat another brigade came to take our place. They belong to the Tawheed brigade.

1.38pm BST

Denial from ‘defector’?

Following yesterday’s debacle when a Russian general appeared on TV denying that he has been assassinated, it looks as though President Assad’s head of protocol may shortly be denying his reported defection:

Syrian State TV: we will soon air a statement from Chief of Presidential Protocols Muheddine Musalmany who denies his defection.

The Syrian authorities have turned hospitals and medical staff into instruments of repression in the course of their efforts to crush the unprecedented mass protests and demonstrations that have wracked the country since March 2011.

People wounded in protests or other incidents related to the uprising have been verbally abused and physically assaulted in state-run hospitals, including by medical staff, and in some cases denied medical care, in gross breach of medical ethics, and many of those taken to hospital have been detained.

As casualties from the current unrest have mounted, so President Bashar al-Assadâ€™s government has intensified its hunt for the wounded, who are generally deemed to be opponents and outlaws …

In Homs, one of Syriaâ€™s major cities and governorates, government security forces have obstructed ambulances on their way to pick up wounded people and when ferrying the wounded to hospital, threatened Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) workers with violence or detention and interrogated wounded patients while they were still being conveyed in ambulances.

They have ordered all those with firearm or other injuries related to the unrest to be directed to the military hospital, which is controlled by the Ministry of Defence, and such patients have been treated effectively as detainees while in hospital and held incommunicado.

12.39pm BST

Syria’s new prime minister

Wael al-Halki, Syria’s third prime minister in a week, is reported to be a gynaecologist from Dera’a – scene of the beginning of the Syrian uprising last March.

AP says:

The 48-year-old held the post of secretary general of the Daraa branch of the Baath party from 2000-2004. He was appointed head of the doctors’ syndicate in 2010.

Syrian journalist Hassan Hassan speculates that the size of al-Halki’s family played a part in his appointment – as this will make it more difficult for him to defect.

#Syria new PM, Wael Halqi, has a daughter & three sons. Posts now hinge on how many children one has & whether they’re within regime’s hands

"The FSA has withdrawn from two streets where there has been fighting in recent days," said Hossam Abu Mohammed, commander of the Dara al-Shahbaa Brigade. "The fighters are withdrawing to [nearby] Sukari district, where they are preparing a counter attack against the army."

"A large number of civilians were killed, as were some 40 rebels," said Abu Mohammed. "Forty buildings have been flattened."

Another FSA commander in Salaheddin confirmed that the rebels are staging a tactical withdrawal.

"We will open new fronts in Saif al-Dawla and Mashhad districts," to the east of Salahedin, said the FSA’s Wassel Ayub.

Al-Jazeera Arabic’s reporter in Salahedin suggests it is more than partial.

AJA reporter in salaheldin says FSA withdrews from salaheldin district in #Aleppo#syria

‘Horribly indiscriminate’ rockets

The aircraft pictured seems to be firing unguided rockets from wing-mounted pods â€“ the equivalent of the old 2.75" designs used by Nato. These are highly inaccurate â€“ they’ve been pretty much withdrawn from the Nato inventory in favour of laser and other guided designs.

Used from about 1,000 feet altitude, they’ve a "Circular Error Probability" of about 100 metres â€“ that is 50% will hit with a 100 metre diameter circle around the aiming point. If they’re being used against urban targets, that’s horribly indiscriminate.

Aleppo rebels want no-fly zone

Rebels in Aleppo are clamouring for a no-fly zone, Martin Chulov reports from the outskirts of the city after witnessing the most intense aerial bombardment of the area so far.

In a telephone update he said:

Every rebel unit that we have any contact with are saying â€˜we donâ€™t need troops, all we need are heavy weapons and/or a no-fly zone, if we had a no-fly zone we could make this workâ€™. They are terrified of jets and of helicopters. They are variables that cannot be controlled. The rebel headquarters in north-east Aleppo has had to move twice now because of being bombed by jets. Its current location is hardly a secret and they remain very vulnerable to the MiGs that are flying above them, on a daily basis – even on an hourly basis.

Martin said rebel strongholds in Aleppo, notably Salahedin, had been repeatedly hit this morning, but ground troops do not appear to have entered.

There has been very intensive shelling in the north-east, part of the east, and certainly Salahedin, which is being absolutely pounded this morning. But we are reasonably certain the regime forces have not entered Salahedin at this point. The shell fire continues which would make it very difficult for their troops to advance.

Martin witnessed tanks shelling Salahedin on the frontline yesterday. He said: â€œTanks are playing a pivotal role … We saw two that were hit, one was still smoking. The FSA have been targeting the tanks – they pose a very lethal threat to them.â€

Rebels have not managed to capture tanks in Salahedin but they have seized ammunition, he added. However, other supplies are running low.

They seem to be reasonably well positioned in terms of ammunition because they have been able to capture a lot in Salahedin from regime forces. Water, basic food, [and] medicine are an issue at the frontlines and other parts of the city.

There is going to come a time, in the next week or so, when the humanitarian situation in Aleppo may deteriorate. There arenâ€™t any resupplies reaching the city, so they are basically getting by on what they had in store.

The borders to Turkey are also open now. Supplies can ostensibly get through that way, but we have not seen any evidence of that happening.

Thatâ€™s a situation that will need to be addressed very quickly. There will need to be some safe lines opened up into the north-east of the city, which is still being menaced by jets and shelling from the outskirts.

The regime still fears sending in ground troops because they are concerned they will defect, Martin said.

Itâ€™s an issue that keeps on coming up. Defectors said there were hundreds more of their colleagues who were more than willing to defect if they could only find the opportunity to do so. These guys said if the regime infantry entered the city it would provide the potential defectors the chance to ditch their uniforms and blend into the suburbs. Thatâ€™s one of the reasons the regime continues to stand back. The other reason is that the shelling is taking a considerable toll on morale of the FSA.

Speaking about his own safety, after withdrawing overnight to a town outside Aleppo, Martin said:

This morning is the most intensive period since Iâ€™ve been here. Was it really worth staying under shell fire just to report how dangerous it was? That narrative has been pretty well established by now. It is a big enough city to hide in, but if it gets any more intensive than this I think the few colleagues that do remain in Aleppo would probably want to reconsider where they locate themselves.

We stayed outside of Aleppo last night, and the jets were bombing where we were. We were roughly that distance [23 miles] from the city but in another town. It seem to be bombing more to intimidate rather than strike any military objective.

Updated at 12.26pm BST

10.53am BST

Explaining the failure of diplomacy

Apportioning blame for the failure to find a diplomatic solution in Syria is useless, but it is worth stating for the record who was responsible, the Guardian’s Middle East editor Ian Black writes in an article for Comment Is Free.

The cartoon book claim that "the west" (conspiring with compliant Arabs) has malevolently blocked an agreement that a principled Russia tirelessly supported does not stand up to scrutiny …

In June, Annan decided to try to jump-start a political transition. In his draft statement of principles for the Geneva conference on 30 June, the key passage sought the widest possible consensus on forming a unity government in Damascus â€“ a negotiated way out of the escalating confrontation. The language he proposed was deliberately vague and fudged the burning question of whether Assad had to go. It was a model of diplomatic ambiguity that could mean different things to different people but â€“ perhaps â€“ serve as a basis for movement. Russia rejected it.

The final Geneva text was even blander, accommodating Moscow’s objections to say that a transitional unity government could be formed by "mutual consent". Annan hailed the agreement. But the truth was that it gave Assad and his supporters a veto over their own departure …

In mid-July Britain drafted a new UN resolution that repeated the call for a "Syrian-led political process" (language supported by Russia). Nowhere did it advocate "forced regime change" as the blame-the-west brigade falsely claims. It was tabled under chapter 7 of the UN charter to trigger sanctions in the event of noncompliance with Annan’s plan â€“ specifically the withdrawal of heavy weapons. It used article 41, which excludes military action. Russia and China vetoed the resolution. The US, Britain and France supported it. Pakistan and South Africa, non-permanent members of the council, abstained. India, not part of the nefarious "west", was among the 11 others that supported it.

10.33am BST

Pro-Syria ex-minister arrested in Lebanon

Lebanon is buzzing this morning with the news that former MP and cabinet minister Michel Samaha, a prominent ally of the Syrian regime, has been arrested over a "sensitive" matter related to "security".

The Daily Star says 64-year-old Samaha was arrested in his pyjamas when security forces arrived at his home in Metn at 2am. A second home in Beirut was also raided.

Czech-designed warplane in action

The Syrian warplane photographed in action over Tel Rifaat (see earlier post) appears to be one of the air force’s Czech-designed L-39 jet trainers rather than a Russian MiG. There’s a file photograph of one here.

The aircraft can (at least theoretically) be equipped with an under fuselage gun pod and external stores (bombs, rockets and missiles) carried on the four underwing hardpoints (up to 1,000 kg of stores).

Airstrikes in Tel Rifaat

The sandy color of the Syrian air force jet was visible as it circled overhead. Then a screaming nosedive and the orange flames of firing rockets on the farming village of Tel Rifaat.

This Reuters journalist saw the jet make at least a dozen rounds of the village of a few thousand people, 35km (20 miles) north of Aleppo city, firing missiles and mounted machine guns.

Villagers panicked – some tried to escape on motorbikes while other crammed belongings and bread into three-wheeled vans. They were unsure of where was safe to go.

Loud explosions rang out and black smoke billowed from an olive grove. A 12-wheeler truck was engulfed in flames.

Six children and a crying woman fled their tiny home. One woman held the Koran above her head, kissing it, and another banged her head in her hands.Men came out of their homes to stare at the sky and throw their arms up in despair.

Abu Hassan, a rebel fighter from the Liwa al Fatah brigade, said the jets were targeting rebel bases in the area. "Four of our bases have been hit so far in and around Tel Rifaat," he said. Three rebels fighters fruitlessly fired an old anti-aircraft gun and a rifle at the speeding plane.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad face guerrilla fighters hiding in farm houses, not a traditional army, and war has been brought to small villages like Tel Rifaat across the country.

Although the pilots seemed to know where the rebel bases were, their fire was often indiscriminate.

Cows ran and jumped as explosions hit fields, and panicked families took cover under olive trees. They looked almost as if they were out for a picnic, as they hid under the canopy of branches

9.39am BST

Air strikes on Aleppo

Jenan Moussa, a reporter for the Dubai broadcaster al-Aan, describes her fear in Aleppo after being close to air strikes in the city.

A house hundred meters away from us got hit by plane. Huge explosion. Earth trembling. #Aleppo@akhbar

Recent senior defectors, among them two colonels from Aleppo who made their way to a nearby town on Tuesday, claimed that the fear of large numbers of defections if a ground attack was launched was shaping regime tactics.

"If they send the army in, they will throw off their clothes and leave," one of the men said. They want to sit back and bomb, just like they did in Homs."

Whoever can prevail in a war of attrition will prevail in Aleppo and likely in the overall uprising. Though battle-weary and at times despairing, and still underprepared, the rebel forces appear to have the stamina to see the fight to a conclusion.

Whether the people of Aleppo share their commitment is yet to be determined. The few cars moving on the largely empty streets were mostly carrying refugees. Those who remain have little reason to fully embrace the uprising that is now affecting all of them.

Asked about the obvious risks he was taking, the 24-year-old trainee surgeon â€“ whose identity cannot be disclosed, to protect his family â€“ had said: "I have seen guys a lot younger than me dying, suffering terrible injuries. I am not even on the frontline with the ambulance drivers; we are just treating the injured, government soldiers as well as the Shabaab (rebel fighters). But this is a strange regime who think doctors are enemies."

â€¢ A senior figure in the Obama administration has refused to rule out imposing a no-fly zone over Syria. Speaking [27 minutes into the clip] at the Council on Foreign Relations John Brennan, Obama’s senior counter-terrorism adviser, said: "I don’t recall the president ever saying that anything is off the table." He added: "Various options that are being talked about in the press, and sometimes being advocated, these are things that the United States government has been looking at very carefully, trying to understand the implications, trying to understand the advantages and the disadvantages."

The idea that things would be better in Syria now had the United States intervened militarily is a fanciful one — more likely, such an intervention would only have destroyed hopes for a political solution more quickly, accelerated the violence, and now found American forces caught in the quagmire. The Obama administration has been wise to resist pressures to intervene militarily in Syria, and I fear that its emerging moves to support the insurgency, which it likely sees as now politically necessary even if unlikely to actually produce desirable outcomes, will come back to haunt it in the coming years. But the reality is that there are now no good options.