Syria army launches feared Aleppo fightback

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Syria army launches feared Aleppo fightback

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Trapped civilians crowded into basements, seeking refuge from the intense bombardment.

28 July,2012 12:43 pm

The Syrian army launched a fightback against rebels in Aleppo on Saturday, amid concern among Western governments about reprisals against the civilian population of the countrys second city.Troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, which had been massing for the past two days, moved on southwestern districts of the commercial hub, where rebel fighters concentrated their forces when they seized much of the northern city on July 20.Artillery pounded Salaheddin and other rebel neighbourhoods from 8 am (0500 GMT) as ground troops made their advance, an AFP correspondent reported.Trapped civilians crowded into basements, seeking refuge from the intense bombardment.You can say that the fightback has begun, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.The fiercest clashes of the uprising are taking place in several neighbourhoods of the city, he said.Pro-government media had warned that the mother of all battles loomed in Aleppo as the government moved to reassert its authority after recapturing rebels districts of the capital earlier in the week.Aleppo will be the last battle waged by the Syrian army to crush the terrorists and, after that, Syria will emerge from the crisis, the Al-Watan newspaper said.Both sides acknowledged that casualties were likely to be high as the more than 16-month uprising comes to a head.Rebels are stationed in narrow streets, in which fighting will be difficult, a regime security official told AFP.The opposition fighters had been holding their fire in readiness for the threatened counter-offensive, the AFP correspondent said.But their small arms and rocket-propelled grenades were little match for the heavy armour of the Syrian army.Three rebel fighters were killed in Aleppo on Saturday before the launch of the armys fightback, the Observatory said.Five rebels and four civilians were killed in and around Damascus, and one civilian died in Daraa, south of the capital, cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assads rule which broke out in March last year.On Friday, the rebels captured 150 soldiers and pro-government militiamen in Aleppo and in the northwestern province of Idlib on the Turkish border, the Observatory said.