French volunteer: Aleppo was left standing thanks to Russian support

19.08.2017, Syria.

Aleppo was not defeated due to Russian airplanes, French reporter Pierre Le Corf said on August 18 on behalf of the city residents, RIA Novosti reports.

Pierre Le Corf has been living in Aleppo since early 2016. He is 28 years old, and he is the founder and leader of the We Are Superheroes non-governmental organization (NGO) which helps civilians.

According to Pierre Le Corf, every Aleppo resident believes that Russian airplanes are the reason why the city did not fall. “I am a French national, and I have no interest to say this… But you can ask anyone in Aleppo: without Russians and their airplanes Aleppo would have been defeated.”

Also, the volunteer was surprised by the wide support for Bashar al-Assad among the residents of the liberated Eastern Aleppo. “Many believe that the government does not do everything the right way. They want reforms. However, the majority of the population supports Bashar al-Assad. When I went around to give my Christmas gifts after Eastern Aleppo was liberated, I was very much surprised to see that people perceived Bashar al-Assad as the one who saved them… <…> Without people’s support he would have long been overthrown.”

Behind his joyful mood, Pierre Le Corf believes that the situation in Aleppo is complicated as the city is in a state of siege. “A while ago, terrorists were 500 meters away from the house where I live, and I could hear them shouting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ before firing a mortar. Now they are three kilometers away. They are at the entrance to the city but not in its center now. A large part of the city is still within their range, and we are still shelled every day. We remain under siege.”

Eastern Aleppo was controlled by radical Islamist groups for four years. On December 22, 2016, this part of the city was completely liberated. The militants and their family members left the city using buses along a designated corridor. On June 4, 2017, the Syrian army supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces mopped up militants from the city of Maskana, the last outpost of ISIL (organization banned in Russia) in the province of Aleppo.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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