A government offensive on southern outskirts of Aleppo ended in success and cut off a vital supply line that ran through the Ramouseh district, reimposing a blockade on Eastern, rebel controlled part of the city. Government forces had managed to put Aleppo under siege before, in July, when they took control of strategic Catello Road north of Aleppo, but the opposition forces managed to win back a supply corridor in the south in August. The corridor has been now closed, cutting an estimated 300,000 inhabitants of Eastern Aleppo from basic supplies.

A complex of military bases and an armed forces' academy played a strategic role in both in the rebel offensive in August and in current government counteroffensive. These objects control the south-western approach to the city and government control over them makes it possible to prevent any supplies, including food and medicine, from reaching Eastern Aleppo. A similar hunger-based strategy is being implemented in different parts of Syria, including Daraya near Damascus, where a siege has forced rebel forced to accept a conditional surrender offer. This strategy leads to humanitarian crises amplified by air strikes on civilian targets, hospitals included.

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