Clashes claim 29 more lives in Syria

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Clashes claim 29 more lives in Syria

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The Syrian army launched a massive assault on rebels in Aleppo on Saturday.

28 July,2012 09:29 pm

At least 29 people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, contributing to a figure of at least 90 people nationwide.The watchdog said more than 20,000 people, the majority civilians, have now died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assads regime erupted in March 2011.Troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, which had been massing for two days, moved on southwestern districts of Aleppo, where rebels concentrated their forces when they seized much of the northern city on July 20.Artillery pounded Salaheddin and other neighbourhoods from 8:00 am (0500 GMT) as ground troops advanced, an AFP correspondent reported.Trapped civilians crowded into basements, seeking refuge from the bombardment. The fiercest clashes of the uprising are taking place in several neighbourhoods, the Observatorys Rami Abdel Rahman said.The regimes forces tried to storm the headquarters of Salaheddin but, thank God, the heroes of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army repulsed the attack, FSA Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi told AFP.We have now destroyed eight armoured vehicles, he said. There are 100 tanks massed on the outskirts of the district. The battle will be hard because there is no balance of forces but we are determined and we have faith in God. While the rebels small arms and rocket-propelled grenades are little match for the heavy armour of Assads forces, Abdel Rahman said the army has not made any progress since the morning, and even lost five tanks.An AFP correspondent in Aleppo said rebels echoed the Observatory claim that loyalists had not advanced, but put the number of tanks lost at 10. He said rebels continued to besiege a strategic police post in the city centre, where 50 men with Kalashnikovs have been holding out for three days.He said its capture would open a corridor between Salaheddin and the rebel-held district of Sakhur, some six kilometres (four kilometres) to the northeast. An activist calling himself Amer said there are thousands of people in the streets fleeing the bombardment. Theyre being terrorised by helicopter gunships flying at low altitude. Theres a large number of civilians who have taken refuge in public parks.Official news agency SANA reported fighting in the Furqan district where a terrorist group was terrorising residents. It said two terrorists had been killed and three others detained, and their arms and vehicles seized.Pro-government daily Al-Watan had warned the mother of all battles loomed in Aleppo as the government moved to reassert its authority after recapturing rebel-held districts of Damascus earlier in the week.Both sides acknowledged casualties were likely to be high.