Hoarding in Aleppo, Syria, as government advances

Associated Press

BEIRUT

As government troops close in on Aleppo, some residents are preparing to flee Syria’s largest city while others are hoarding food in case of a long siege, even laying out bread on rooftops to dry it out for storage.

The U.N. warned Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of people could be cut off from humanitarian aid as siege conditions tighten around the rebel-controlled eastern part of the city.

The threat of starvation haunts Aleppo’s residents, who have seen images of emaciated children and adults from other blockaded parts of Syria. An estimated 1 million people are trapped in besieged areas, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Siege Watch project.

“There is a lot of fear, especially after people saw Madaya,” said opposition media activist Karam Almasri, referring to a besieged town in southern Syria.

“They don’t want the same to happen to them,” added Almasri, who lives in Aleppo’s war-ravaged neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr. He and others spoke to The Associated Press via Skype or social media.

Aleppo looms large in Syria’s 5-year-old conflict, both as the country’s former commercial capital and a bastion of the opposition in the north. The city has been divided since 2012, with the government controlling the western portion, while the eastern part is held by insurgents. Many neighborhoods and historic buildings have been ruined by street fighting and aerial bombardment.

A government offensive in the countryside north of Aleppo has cut a vital opposition supply route from the Turkish border, leaving just one corridor from the east to the outside world.