Bloody clashes in Syria’s ‘second city’ Aleppo

There was heavy fighting between the Free Syrian Army rebels and government forces in Aleppo, 350 km north of Damascus. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said battles started on Friday morning between regular forces and rebel units in the Salaheddin neighbourhood and the Haydariya area.

The Local Coordination Committees — a grassroots activist network — reported “an exodus of residents of the (Salaheddin) neighbourhood because of fear of regime bombardment and an offensive.” Aleppo has more than two million residents.

Meanwhile in Damascus, a day after regime forces launched a major counter-offensive to retake rebel-held areas, the army bombarded the Al-Kaddam and Assali neighbourhoods on the southern outskirts overnight, the Observatory said. Residents reported fighting in the Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and Tadamon districts.

One refugee in the Yarmuk Palestinian camp, on the outskirts of the capital, told AFP that he had not left since Wednesday because snipers were posted at the entrance to the city “and they shoot at any gathering.”

Government forces were also shelling several districts of the rebel city of Homs, including Khaldiyeh, and fighting was ongoing in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said.

Military defections

A Turkish official told Reuters that 10 officers, including brigadier-generals and colonels, defected to Turkey overnight. Separately, there were reports that Major-General Adnan Sillu, the former head of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, had defected.

There are now believed to be up to 100 senior military defectors taking refuge in Turkey alongside 43,000 Syrians who have also fled across the Turkish border amid heavy violence.

The nationwide death toll on Friday stood at 233, including 153 civilians, 43 soldiers and 37 rebels, The Observatory said Saturday.

State television trumpeted the news of the military’s Damascus offensive on Friday citing “our brave army forces” who have “completely cleansed the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have re-established security.”

Midan ‘cleansed’

Reporters were taken on a regime-organised trip of the neighbourhood, where they saw empty streets, shuttered shops and buildings pockmarked with bullet holes.

The counter-offensive came after a Wednesday bombing claimed by the Free Syrian Army killed four senior members of the regime, including national security chief General Hisham Ikhtiyar who died yesterday.

Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime’s crisis cell on the uprising, were all killed in the explosion.

UN extension

The UN Security Council this week voted unanimously to grant a “final” 30-day extension to a troubled observer mission charged with overseeing a tattered peace plan for Syria.

As a result some UN observers began departing from Syria on Saturday. Diplomats said only half of the 300 unarmed observers would be needed. The rest are to return to their home countries, but be ready to redeploy at short notice.