Syria army reinforcements in place for Aleppo battle
Syria's army on Sunday completed its deployment of reinforcements to the embattled northern city of Aleppo, ready for a decisive battle, a security source told AFP.
"The war is likely to be long, because there will have to be street battles in order to get rid of the terrorists," the high-level source said, declining to be named.
"All the reinforcements have arrived and they are surrounding the city," the source said. "The army is ready to launch its offensive, but is awaiting orders."
A prominent security official told AFP on Saturday that the battle for Aleppo, Syria's economic capital in the north of the country, had not yet started in earnest, despite often heavy fighting since July 20.
"The battle for Aleppo has not yet begun, and what is happening now is just the appetizer," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The main course will come later."
He said that at least 20,000 troops were posted on the ground, while the rebels who claim to control 50 percent of the city had also sent reinforcements to Aleppo.
Ahram Online
Video
Spot Lights
BBC SportWhen it's put to him that he might be the most talented athlete in the world to hold a racquet, a bashful Ramy Ashour admits "that's pretty great".The 25-year-old Egyptian is more than just the current squash world number one - his elastic, unorthodox brilliance and charisma could be the key to squash breaking out beyond its four walls and regaining a place on the wider sporting
Ministers in Prime Minister Hisham Qandil's cabinet following the recent reshuffle (new appointees are in italics): 1. Minister of Agriculture Ahmed Mahmoud Ali El-Gizawi2. Minister of Antiquities Ahmed Eissa3. Minister of Aviation Wael Maadawi4. Minister of Communication Atef Helmy5. Minister of Culture
AP— April 15, 2013: Two bombs explode in the packed streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 140.— January 17, 2011: A backpack bomb is placed along a Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Washington, meant to kill and injure participants in a civil rights march, but is found and disabled before it can explode. White
The convenient marriage between Iran and the Arab left would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, given the traditional ideological paradoxes between patriarchal Persian Shiism, on the one hand, and leftist orthodoxy on the other.Indeed, a casual viewer of Hizbullah's Al-Manar television, or the Iranian-funded Al-Mayadin TV, these days would probably think that the two Shia propaganda
