Beirut: Syrian regime forces backed by heavy Russian air raids recaptured a series of hilltops and villages on the southwest edges of Aleppo city from rebel groups, a monitor said on Wednesday.
The advance rolls back the short-lived gains from a rebel offensive launched on Sunday to ease the regime’s siege of eastern opposition-held districts of the divided city.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government fighters seized two hilltops and two small villages in the southwest suburbs of Aleppo late on Tuesday.
“The regime is launching counter-attacks to absorb the fierce rebel offensive,” said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman.
The Observatory said 50 rebels had been killed since the assault began, as well as dozens of regime troops.
The Al Watan daily, which is close to the government, reported on Wednesday that government forces “advanced again south and southwest of Aleppo because of the major setbacks” among rebel factions.
The Aleppo offensive groups fighters from the powerful Islamist Ahrar Al Sham and other groups.
The anti-regime fighters are seeking to capture Ramussa, a district in Aleppo’s southwest suburbs, in a bid to cut off government forces and open a new route into the city for rebels.
Overnight, at least 10 civilians, including four children were killed in rebel shelling of government-controlled districts on Aleppo’s southwestern edges, the Observatory said.
More than 40 civilians have been killed in opposition bombardment of those neighbourhoods since Sunday.
On Tuesday, Syrian rebels accused government forces of launching toxic gas attacks on civilians in a town southwest of Aleppo. The government rejected the claim and accused the rebels of using chemical weapons themselves.
Rebel sources provided video of people receiving treatment who they say were among the victims of a gas attack, but the images were not conclusive and neither of the gas attack claims by the rebels or the government could be independently verified.
The accusations on both sides came amid heightened fighting around the contested northern city that killed at least 20 people, activists and government media reported.
Rescuers and doctors in rebel-held Saraqib, a town in the northwestern Idlib province, about 40 kilometres southwest of Aleppo, reported dozens of cases of severe breathing difficulties, saying the symptoms pointed to a chlorine gas attack.
A neurologist, Dr Ebrahim Al Assad, said he treated 16 of the 29 cases brought to his hospital on Monday night, most of whom were women and children. One elderly man needed critical care but most of the casualties were suffering from breathing difficulties, red eyes and wheezing, Al Assad said.
He said first responders smelled the gas at the site of the bomb attack, which he described as a busy shopping area near an ice cream shop. Rebels and activists have reported chlorine gas attacks in the town before, but the lack of chemical labs or independent testers makes it difficult to verify these claims.
