Putin targets East Aleppo rebels; Did Trump's Election doom them?
Some 2,000 rebel fighters, most of them Muslim fundamentalists,
others remnants of the Free Syrian Army, are trying to break the Syrian
regime’s blockade of East Aleppo. But they may soon face cruise
missiles launched at them from Russian submarines in the Mediterranean,
along with other air strikes coming off a Russian aircraft carrier
battle group that has reached the Syrian port of Tartous.
Aleppo is divided into two cities. The Western neighborhoods may
have as many as 600k to 1 million inhabitants. They are better off than
those in the east and are under Syrian government control. From all
accounts they are able to live relatively normal lives, though under a
one-party state at war. East Aleppo was long more slummy than the west,
and as a set of districts with a lot of have-nots it is not surprising
that it rebelled in 2011 and then became a rebel stronghold.
