美国有线新闻 CNN 叙政府军收复阿勒颇在即 暂停打击反对派平民撤离

 

Next in the Middle East. Aleppo used to be the most populated city in the nation of Syria. A large part of it has been abandoned and destroyed by years of civil war. Rebels who've been fighting the Syrian government currently control part of Eastern Aleppo.

Syrian troops with the support of Russia's military had been battling to get Aleppo back and they've made advances against the rebels in recent weeks. Syria says its targeting terrorists there. The nation's president says recapturing Aleppo would be a significant step toward bringing Syria's five-year-old civil war to an end.

But a British intelligence leader says that Syria and Russia are trying to eliminate opposition¹ in Aleppo at any price, and that that's created a, quote, "human tragedy".

Thousands of civilians² have been trapped in eastern Aleppo. There aren't enough medical supplies to treat the wounded. Yesterday, Russia's foreign minister said Syria had suspended combat in Aleppo, so that civilians could get out. He called it the largest ever evacuation for residents of eastern Aleppo.

SUBTITLE³: Why is Aleppo so important in Syria?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aleppo is the commercial hub of Syria, symbolically⁴ unparalleled. This is which rebel forces piled in summer 2012, taking large part of it, holding back to a better equipped Syrian military, showing that they could get popular support in urban areas. It's also where so much of the gross slaughter⁵ of this war occurred, where Syrian jets or helicopters just dropping the most crude devices known as barrel bombs would repeatedly kill children, doctors, target hospitals. And if it finds itself again in Syrian government hands, that is an enormous propaganda coup⁶ for the Syrian regime itself, after its Russia and Iranian support, it now has control on pretty much of all the major population centers of Syria itself.

Secondly⁷, the Syrian moderate forces themselves, they're moving to that city in summer of 2012 showed they could be militarily effective. But if they get kicked out, they don't really have anywhere else at this point to go. If these moderate forces move in to Idlib, they could well be being seen by the Americans particularly as too close to al Qaeda, a described terrorist group.

If east Aleppo falls, we simply don't know how many civilians could get caught in this crossfire⁸ killed, injured (INAUDIBLE). Most importantly, if it does fall as well, it marks a turning point in this civil war, one from which it can be pretty hard for those forces, for everyone used to call a Syrian revolution to recover from.

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

3 subtitle   

n.副题（书本中的），说明对白的字幕

参考例句：

• His new book has a subtitle.他的新书有一个副标题。
• Ah!I don't know why they don't subtitle these movies.唉！我不知道这些电影为什么不打字幕。

4 symbolically   

ad.象征地，象征性地

参考例句：

• By wearing the ring on the third finger of the left hand, a married couple symbolically declares their eternal love for each other. 将婚戒戴在左手的第三只手指上，意味着夫妻双方象征性地宣告他们的爱情天长地久，他们定能白头偕老。
• Symbolically, he coughed to clear his throat. 周经理象征地咳一声无谓的嗽，清清嗓子。

5 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

6 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

7 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

8 crossfire   

n.被卷进争端

参考例句：

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.他们称自己被卷进了教育机构与政府之间的争端。
• When two industrial giants clash,small companies can get caught in the crossfire.两大工业企业争斗之下，小公司遭受池鱼之殃。