Syria: rebels launch massive offensive in Aleppo | euronews, world news

A soldier from the Syrian government forces looks at bodies reportedly of Islamic State group fighters in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

Two coalitions of Syrian rebels battled to advance in government-held western Aleppo today, seizing an army barracks in one district but being pushed back in others.

The military source said 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.

Eight civilians were killed with at least 70 injured with dozens of dead and injured from army personnel and allied militias, the head of the monitor said.

The rebels attempted repeatedly to storm government areas in the hope of seizing control of the entire city of Aleppo without success.

Damaged buses are positioned atop a building as barricades to provide protection from snipers of the forces of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in in the old city of Aleppo, Syria June 27, 2015.

Also Saturday, the Observatory said the number of Al-Nusra Front fighters killed a day earlier in an explosion in a mosque in northwestern Syria had gone up to 31.

Islamic militants and rebels in Syria have launched a coordinated offensive on government-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, setting off some of the heaviest fighting there in months.

Syria’s civil war, now in its fifth year, has killed more than 220,000 people and wounded at least a million, according to the United Nations.

The Observatory said government forces had tried unsuccessfully to recapture the facility overnight and launched air raids against it on Saturday, prompting the rebels to partially evacuate.

Aleppo lies just 50 kilometres from the Turkish border. It has been partitioned into areas of government and insurgent control since 2012.

A statement by the rebel groups said their goal is to liberate the city of Aleppo and ensure it is ruled by Sharia principles.

The helicopters dropped 10,423 barrel bombs on different areas in the provinces Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Al-Hasakah, Deir Ezzor, Al-Quneitera, Al Suwaydaa, Daraa, Idlib and Lattakia.

In addition, forces from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been advancing on the town, which is strategically close to a Turkish-Syria border crossing. “We will never allow steps that would drag Turkey into an adventure and a risk”.

But Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were no immediate plans for any incursion.