Kneeling on a rooftop, a woman jams a stick down a longpipe. With no electricity, residents now use diesel fuel for heat, which clogsthe chimneys with soot. Nearby, on Bab al-Nayrab street, goats rummage througha quarter-mile of garbage. Its putrid stench extends even farther. As fightingin Syria’s largest city enters its sixth month, the economy has ground to ahalt. There is no electricity, and the prices of basic goods such as bread and cookingoil have skyrocketed. Residents are selling off their possessions to survive.
The rebels’ hope for a quick victory in Aleppo has given wayto the reality that there is no end in sight to this war. Though the rebelsrecently seized the Sheikh Suleiman Air Base and the Infantry School on theoutskirts of Aleppo, the regime still controls large swaths of the city itselfand regularly shells rebel-held zones. The creation of a newgovernment-in-exile and a unified military command means little to families onthe front lines, fervently hoping the next shell will not land in their livingroom. The new National Coalition offers them neither the necessities or thesecurity they pine for.
Ahmad Mustafa makes jeans in a clothing factory. The30-year-old father of 10 did not participate in the protests that preceded thearmed conflict. “I just want to work,” he says. With no electricity to powerhis television for almost a month now, he does not follow current events. “Iknow nothing about the Coalition or politics,” Mustafa says, stroking the headof one his many daughters. “I just focus on surviving.” Lines for a bag of pitabread, up to seven hours long, are the latest addition to every rebel-heldneighborhood. Better organized bakeries have set up lottery systems; at others,a mad rush ensues when stores open. Burly men wrestle to get to the front whilethose behind them push forward, crushing people at the delivery window. At theback of the line, Salwa Badri grimaces as she watches the jostling. “This is anightmare,” the 36-year-old mother exclaims. “Why has Allah abandoned us tothis?”
In fact it is the regime of Bashar al-Assad that hasabandoned much of eastern Aleppo to the rebels of the Free Syrian Army, whohave no experience dealing with everyday tasks such as distributing flour andoil.
“We did not think the F.S.A. would fail as badly as it has,”said Musab Muhammad, a professor of electrical engineering at the Aleppouniversity. “Its mistakes are causing it to lose the support of the people.”
While the F.S.A.'s performance is eroding its support, theNational Coalition has none to lose. A shell with no grass-roots operation, itdoes not have the wherewithal to meet daily needs. If the coalition is to getany traction in the population, it will need to make its presence better known.Its members will have to spend more time dealing with flour distribution andless in Western capitals seeking aid that does not trickle down to Mustafa orBadri.
In the rubble of what was once a cultural center in the southernneighborhood of Fardus, several hundred people are holding anotherdemonstration against the regime. “Advance, O Free Army! Grasp determinationand perseverance boldly. Your land will return through blood. Stand up, do notgive way,” shouts Faisal Abdallah. “We do not want the regime to oppress us anylonger,” he explains.
Abdallah is 21, and the other protesters look to be under25. Older men observer from afar. When a foreigner approaches an older manstanding with a bag of tomatoes and cucumbers, he quickly moves away. “I don’twant any trouble,” he mumbles, evidently fearful that a conversation with astranger might reach a regime that still controls parts of the city. By itsabsence from the opposition rallies, the silent majority signals that it is notyet prepared to throw its lot in with the rebels.
We often hear reports that the Assad regime is nearcollapse, that the rebels’ string of victories has pushed the government to thebrink of defeat. But in Aleppo, there is little sign of that.
After the rebels’ initial successes in early December, thewar within the city has ground to a halt. The battle on the front lines in theneighborhoods of Bustan al-Pasha and Salah al-Din remains deadlocked. As longas it remains so “ and it is likely to be a long time “ Mustafa and Badri havelittle hope of waking up from the nightmare of the battle for Aleppo to findtheir houses warm and their electricity running.
Barak Barfi is a research fellow at the New AmericaFoundation
