Fighting rages as Syria troops assail rebels in Aleppo

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Fighting rages as Syria troops assail rebels in Aleppo

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Fighting raged on the second day of a fierce Syrian government offensive against rebels in Aleppo.

30 July,2012 07:10 am

Fighting raged on the second day Sunday of a fierce government offensive against rebels in Aleppo, as the UN said 200,000 civilians had fled Syrias most populous city in two days and many were trapped.The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) accused the government of preparing to carry out massacres in the northern city and pleaded for heavy weapons to enable rebels to meet the regime onslaught.The SNC also urged the UN to hold an emergency session to discuss ways to protect civilians caught up in the conflict.Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, on a surprise visit to key ally Iran, said the rebels will definitely be defeated in Aleppo, even as a Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander boasted the city would become a graveyard for the armys tanks.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sundays fighting was focused around the southwestern neighbourhood of Salaheddin, where rebels repulsed a ground assault on Saturday.There are clashes on the edges of... Salaheddin which regime forces were pounding with helicopter gunships, the Observatorys Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.Abdel Rahman described the situation in Aleppo as a full-scale street war, with fighting also in the neighbourhoods of Arkub, Bab al-Hadid, Fardoss, Jisr al-Hajj, Sukari, Zahraa, Zebdiyeh, at the Al-Hindrat Palestinian refugee camp, and Bustan al-Qasr district which was being pounded by helicopter gunships.The Britain-based Observatory said that the sound of heavy machinegun fire and explosions could be heard in Salaheddin late on Sunday but gave no further details.Rebels broke into a juvenile detention centre in order to set the prisoners free, he said, adding displaced families were having difficulty finding refuge because nowhere is safe any more.After massing for two days, troops backed by tanks and helicopters on Saturday launched a ground assault on Salaheddin, where rebels concentrated their forces when they seized much of Aleppo on July 20.Both sides claimed to have made advances, but an AFP correspondent reported rebels had largely repulsed the army when it launched its first onslaught.Civilians in the city of some 2.5 million crowded into basements seeking refuge from the intense bombardment by artillery and helicopters, the correspondent said.UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in a statement that 200,000 people have fled from Aleppo in two days and an unknown number of them were still trapped in the city.Amos said in New York that she was extremely concerned by the impact of shelling and use of tanks and other heavy weapons on civilians in Aleppo, Damascus and other locations.She said that many people in Aleppo had sought shelter in schools and other public buildings. They urgently need food, mattresses and blankets, hygiene supplies and drinking water, she said.Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi, FSA commander for Aleppo, said the rebels had inflicted heavy losses on the army in Salaheddin but that there had been many civilian deaths.Aleppo will be the graveyard of the tanks of the Syrian army, Oqaidi told AFP in an interview conducted at an isolated farmhouse surrounded by olive groves near the city.We ask the West for a no-fly zone in order to prevent aerial raids by Assads forces, he said.The colonel said his men were positioned across Aleppo and would not withdraw as they had when they came under intense fire from regime troops in Damascus earlier this month.