ALEPPO, Syria — The city of Anadan in the northern Aleppo countryside seemed empty when Al-Monitor visited Feb. 17 — with the exception of some citizens who returned to inspect their houses and a few fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who stayed to defend their land.
The Russian raids and regime forces’ offensives against Aleppo Feb. 1 forced hundreds of thousands of the residents in the northern Aleppo countryside to flee, as the regime forces took control of about a dozen towns, which cut the opposition’s strategic supply line connecting the Bab al-Salameh border crossing to Aleppo.