Fighting rages in Syria’s Aleppo, east Damascus

Aleppo: Fighting raged in a strategic district of Syria’s commercial capital Aleppo on Saturday, the third day of a rebel offensive to seize the city, monitors said.

The United States and Britain, meanwhile, pledged more than another $55 million (Dh202 million) in funding for humanitarian aid and the civilian opposition.

The focal point of combat was Salah Al Deen, a rebel stronghold on the southwest side of the city where insurgents attacked an army position, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It also warned that the wooden-doored shops of the famous souq marketplace in central Aleppo, a popular tourist destination before Syria’s violence erupted in March 2011, were set ablaze in the clashes between rebels and soldiers.

Elsewhere, the army stepped up operations on the Eastern Guta area of Damascus.

“The rebels have a strong presence there, and the army wants to root them out once and for all,” Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said.

Damascus-based citizen journalist Mattar Esmail said the “army is taking revenge against Damascus, and it is mainly the civilians who are paying the price.

“The situation here is very bad, especially in the eastern areas. And the regime is executing many men summarily.”

The Eastern Guta area of the capital and its province is home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army’s (FSA) fiercest and best organised battalions, including Tajamo Ansar Al Islam.

On Wednesday, two car bombs struck an army headquarters in the heart of Damascus, and Tajamo Ansar Al Islam was the first FSA group to claim responsibility for the operation.

Meanwhile, fighting raged in several districts of Aleppo, where rebels launched on Thursday an all-out campaign to capture the northern city, the scene of some of Syria’s fiercest violence since July 20, the Observatory said.

Battles broke out in the central Old City and eastern Arkub districts, said the Britain-based watchdog.

Residents of Sulaiman Al Halabi, one of Aleppo’s main districts, reported finding an unknown number of abandoned corpses on the streets, Abdul Rahman said.

A total of 37 people were killed in violence across the strife-torn country, including 19 civilians, most of them in Damascus province, said the Observatory, adding that 18 soldiers were also killed in combat.

Also on Saturday, Al Assad’s forces shelled localities in the southern province of Daraa as well as in Deir Al Zor to the east.

The latest violence came a day after a total of 136 people were killed across Syria, according to the Observatory, among them 85 civilians, 20 rebels and 31 soldiers.

More than 30,000 people have died in 18 months of violence since the outbreak of a revolt against President Bashar Al Assad.

On Friday, residents of Aleppo neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for the northern city said the violence was unprecedented, but the offensive had stalled.