Syrian Islamist insurgents launch battle to seize government-held Aleppo

Syrian rebels have begun a massive assault aimed at taking full control of the northern city of Aleppo.

The fall of Syria’s main commercial hub would be a major blow for Assad, restricting his control mainly to a belt of territory stretching north from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.

Reports say rebels fired hundreds of rockets and missiles into government-held areas in a multi-district attack.

The London-based monitoring group said that the fierce clashes killed four civilians, five rebel fighters and injured over 70 others.

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.

They said the aim was to “liberate Aleppo and the countryside” and “to draft a joint covenant to run Aleppo after its liberation in line with sharia” Islamic law.

Fighting in Aleppo erupted in mid-2012, and control of the city has since been divided between rebels and the government.

The monitor said regime war planes carried out some 40 air strikes, and at least 29 Ansar Al Sharia fighters were killed on Friday.

He added that the air force and artillery had been used to target the rebels, who he said had used heavy weapons in their attack.

In the Qalamoun region, government forces backed by Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah started a battle to capture the last rebel-held town in the area, which lies north of Damascus on the Lebanese border.

Aleppo is historically Syria’s industrial and financial capital, but rebels began attacking the city in mid-2012.

A report released in May by Amnesty global accused the Assad government of committing “unthinkable atrocities” in Aleppo, particularly in regards to its use of barrel bombs which it says cause indiscriminate harm to civilians. “We planted explosives in the streets and are preparing ourselves for intense street battles” Abu Abdo, a fighter from the hardline Islamist faction Ahrar al-Sham group, told Reuters.

It includes the jihadist al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

Activist Karim Obeid said the rebel coalition had targeted Aleppo’s Zahra “because the (Syrian) army regularly bombs opposition-held locations from there”.

According to local newspapers in Turkey, the intention would be to create a buffer zone 60 miles long by 20 miles deep including the IS-controlled border crossing of Jarablus and Azaz.