US accuses Russia of positioning artillery around Aleppo for assault

Russia has moved heavy artillery pieces and forces into new positions near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, US officials said on Thursday, amid the breakdown of a fragile ceasefire.

The Russian movements were reported to Reuters by a US official who asked to remain anonymous.

Aleppo, which was the most populous city in Syria before the war, has been split between government and rebel control for much of the five-year conflict.

A fragile nationwide ceasefire that came into effect in February has been continually put in jeopardy by fighting around Aleppo, with opposition forces on Monday announcing a new battle around the city in response to what they called "continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods" by government forces.

Peace talks in Geneva collapsed this week in the wake of government air strikes and clashes in Idlib and Aleppo that have left scores of civilians dead. Opposition representatives blamed the government for the violence and withdrew from the talks.

At least 14 civilians were killed on Friday morning when government planes struck a rebel-held eastern district of the city, local civil defence teams told AFP.

Large numbers of fighters from the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front – which is not subject to the ceasefire – are said to have been massing around Aleppo in recent weeks.

The head of the Russian General Staff’s main operations command, Sergei Rudskoy, warned last week that the group was planning a large-scale offensive to cut Aleppo off from the capital Damascus.

However, Rudskoy denied that Russia will launch an assault on the city to prevent such an advance, saying that “no storming of the city of Aleppo is planned”.

US officials have said that Russia’s repositioning of artillery around Aleppo comes on the back of the Syrian government’s symbolic recapture of the iconic city of Palmyra last month.

Russia supported a ground advance by troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launching a massive campaign of air strikes targeting the IS militants who has seized control of the city in May 2015.

Russia on Thursday said it had completed an operation to remove mines planted by the militants around the town’s ancient ruins, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Russia, a key backer of Assad, announced a partial withdrawal of its forces from Syria midway through last month as government and opposition forces met for a fresh round of talks in Geneva.

However, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned on Thursday that, despite the withdrawal of many Russian warplanes, it maintains a “considerable military presence” in Syria.

The US official who spoke to Reuters said that, rather than downgrading its military capacities in Syria, that Russia had changed its tactics by putting more emphasis on helicopters used to support ground operations by the Syrian army and their allies.