Only a day after announcing the campaign to take the world’s oldest city – Aleppo – the newly formed coalition of Islamist factions “Ansār as-Sharī’a” (formed out of conglomeration of opposition forces, including the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and the Al-Qaeda affiliated group Ahrar ash-Sham) attacked the Syrian Armed Forces at the Al-Khalidiyah District, Al-Zahra Association Quarter, and Al-Ashrafiyah District.
Ansar as-Sharia hoped to mirror the success of a similar Islamist coalition “Jaish Al-Fatah”, which had managed to capture the city of Idlib and the majority of the Idlib province only a few months before.
The goal of this group (and to a lesser extent Fatah-Halab) was simply defined as the capture of the provincial capital of Aleppo and the establishment of Shariah law.
Numerous assaults had been conducted on the Syrian Armed Forces controlled part of the provincial capital in 2015, most coming with very minor success and numerous casualties for the opposition forces.
According to a military source inside the city of Aleppo, Ansar As-Shari’ah launched a number of rockets and mortar shells into the Al-Al-Zahra Association Quarter, the Al-Khalidiyah and Al-Ashrafiyah Districts, and into Nile Street, resulting in the death of 11 civilians, along with another 96 that were wounded.