Syria conflict: ‘Massive rebel assault’ to take Aleppo

The rebels said that they have formed a new alliance, called “Ansar al- Shari’ah”, which aims “to liberate the city of Aleppo and its countryside and to endeavor with the other factions to develop a joint charter to govern Aleppo after liberation according to Islam[ic] rules”.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that opened potential lines of attack against several other government-held neighbourhoods.

Insurgents have also been bombarding government-held areas, turning the tables after strikes by Syrian forces on insurgent-held parts of what was Syria’s most populous city before it become a main battleground in the four-year civil war.

Reuters quotes a military source as saying that the rebels “had bombarded government-held parts of Aleppo with weapons including highly destructive “hell cannons” – improvised mortar bombs made out of cooking gas cylinders”.

Another five rebel fighters were killed in the clashes that erupted with government forces in western Aleppo.

One Aleppo resident, a 23-year-old student who gave her name as Sahar, said fighting had been “intensive”.

Separately, the sound of intense fighting, including explosions, could be heard from the Turkish border town of Kilis, about 30 miles (48 km) north of the Syrian city of Azaz, witnesses said. “We heard the blasts but because they were coming from everywhere we didn’t know where the shells were falling”, she told AFP by telephone.

The coalition, which includes Al-Qaeda’s Syrian associate Al-Nusra Front, the rival of the Islamic State jihadist group, pledged “victory for the Muslims of Aleppo”.

The Syrian Observatory also described fierce clashes in the village of Zahra, already partially controlled by the opposition and home to an air force intelligence base.

But he said progress would not come easy for the rebels in west Aleppo, with its tall buildings ideal for regime snipers and its avenues wide enough for government tanks.

With vital backing from the Shi’ite Islamist government of Iran, Assad has meanwhile been trying to shore up his control over western swathes of Syria near the border with Lebanon, helped by Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

The state-run news agency SANA said its troops in Aleppo and its outskirts have killed dozens of “terrorists”, a term used by the regime to identify Syrian rebels.

More than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict began in March 2011.