"Surrounded – Some of History’s Most Incredible Sieges " Topic

"Encircled, cut off and facing attack by government troops, the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has been under what's being described as a state of siege since late July. Elements of the 11th and 18th divisions of the Syrian Army along with that country's Republican Guard have spent the past six weeks hammering away at anti-government rebels, Mujahedeen, Kurdish militia and various foreign fighters entrenched throughout the city. Already, the fighting has claimed as many as 300 on each side and more than 500 civilians have perished in the ongoing battle. Syrian president Bashar Hafez al-Assad has fallen under intense criticism internationally for the bloodshed in Aleppo, which is Syria's largest city. What Assad is doing is by no means revolutionary — the idea of surrounding and starving defenders into submission (rather than defeating them in open battle) has been a common feature of war going back as far as the earliest walled settlements and Bronze Age hill forts. History's first recorded siege was in the 15thCentury BCE, when an Egyptian army under the leadership of Thutmose III wore down the Canaanite defenders of Megiddo, in present day Israel. Since then, there have been nearly 500 sieges recorded in military history. Here are some of the more remarkable facts about siege warfare…"
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