The Battle for Aleppo by Ahmed Deeb

Ahmed Deeb, a Palestinian photojournalist, spent 24 days taking photographs beside the rebels in Syria's largest city. He sends us this report.

The Free Syrian Army in Aleppo is made up of separate brigades and battalions. They cooperate when they encounter shortages of ammunition or manpower. Most of the Free Syrian Army fighters are young, between 18 and 30 years old, and a smaller number of them are older. The leaders are always with their soldiers at the front lines.Exact numbers are unknown, but there are probably between 7,000–8,000 fighters total in the city of Aleppo and its surrounding countryside. While the Aleppo fighters stay in their city, supporting soldiers from Damascus, Idlib and Homs can be found here.

Most of the city of Aleppo is under the control of the Free Syrian Army. Soldiers from the government of President Bashar al-Assad are based in fortified places, like military barracks and military airports.

The countryside around Aleppo is no longer controlled by the government, but it is sometimes bombed by military planes. Once rebels had liberated the countryside, they moved onto the city of Aleppo. Many fighters in the city live there for long periods of time without seeing their families.

Syrian mobile phone networks often have weak signals and telephones lines are often cut, making communication difficult in the country. The rebel leaders use wireless devices to communicate with each other during battles.

Thousands of civilians have fled Syria for Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, due to indiscriminate shelling and targeting of civilian homes, the burning of factories, and the lack of water, electricity and communications in many provinces.