In the early morning hours of Saturday, the Syrian army began a dangerous operation to take back specific zones that are currently being controlled by the rebels in Aleppo.
Meanwhile, the first Russian fleet, which has been anchored between Cypriot and Syrian waters, is waiting to meet up with the North Atlantic fleet (or the largest fleet in Russia) on Monday or Tuesday. Moscow has already announced that it will not deploy land troops unless it is only necessary, but reports are claiming that it has moved a great number of troops to the area already. Maybe the Kremlin believes that by doing so it will be in a better position to negotiate with the West "on equal terms" if land forces are eventually used.
The Syrian army used artillery and antitank attacks, and then Mil Mi-17 helicopters were set into operation firing rockets on the rebels, as were Mil Mi-25 guns. The helicopters concentrated on the Salachentin, Al-Azamige, Qasr el-bust, and al-Mashhad al-Soukari districts (phonetic spelling). Two helicopters suffered 12.7 mm. gun shots and returned to base.
The battle in Aleppo is actually going to determine how the conflict will develop. For instance, if the Syrian government manages to regain control of these areas (which consist of eight large building complexes and a University) they will be successful in their offensive against the rebels following the bomb attack that killed several top regime officials more than a week ago because they will have cleaned up the danger pockets in Damascus. If on the other they are not successful in doing so, then the regime will suffer from a great strategic defeat. A report from the Greek military news site defencenet said that several units of British special forces are already scattered throughout these regions, no further details were disclosed.
With this in mind, this is probably why Assad ordered his troops to abandon the Kurdish areas, and he instead sent them to these zones because they are in a better position to battle against these forces. This move allows him to save on manpower as well as resources and at the same time is becoming a "big headache" to Turkey because Syria is now in a better position to reciprocate on the threats from Ankara since the northern area has already become a base for the PKK!
The same report on defencent also revealed that BMP-1 APC and BRDM-2 defense systems are already being moved to the districts followed by T-72 tanks.
From what it looks like infantry assault forces will be put into operation by the end of the day.
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