Aleppo: Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad won support on Tuesday from Iran as his forces battled rebel fighters in Aleppo.

Al Assad met Saeed Jalili, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, after suffering some major setbacks in the 17-month revolt, including Monday’s defection of his prime minister Riad Hijab. He was shown on television meeting a senior Iranian official, the first footage broadcast of the president for two weeks.

Jalili said Iran would not allow its close relations with the Syrian leadership to be fractured by the opposition or its allies.

“Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way,” Jalili was quoted as saying.

The “axis of resistance” refers to the anti-Israel alliance with Syria’s rulers and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Humanitarian aid

Damascus and Tehran have held Arab states and Turkey responsible for the bloodshed in Syria by supporting the rebels.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported that Jalili told Al Assad that Iran was prepared to provide humanitarian aid to Syria.

On a visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he wanted to work with Ankara to resolve the crisis.

Iran has also expressed worry about the fate of more than 40 Iranians it says are religious pilgrims kidnapped by rebels from a bus in Damascus while visiting Shiite shrines.

Rebels say they suspect the captives were troops sent to help Al Assad. A rebel spokesman in the Damascus area said on Monday three of the Iranians had been killed by government shelling. He initially said the rest would be executed if the shelling did not stop but later said they were being questioned.

In Aleppo, rebels fighting an army assault said they were low on ammunition as Al Assad’s forces tried to encircle their stronghold in the south. Al Assad has reinforced his troops in preparation for an offensive to recapture rebel areas in Aleppo.

“The Syrian army is trying to encircle us from two sides of Salah Al Deen,” Shaikh Tawfiq, one of the rebel commanders, told Reuters.

Mortar fire and tank shells exploded across the district early on Tuesday, forcing rebel fighters to take cover in crumbling buildings and rubble-strewn alleyways.

Heavy bombardment

Tanks have entered parts of Salah Al Deen and army snipers, using the cover of heavy bombardment, deployed on rooftops, hindering rebel movements.

Another rebel commander, Abu Ali, told Reuters that snipers at the main Salah Al Deen traffic roundabout were preventing the rebels from bringing in reinforcements and supplies. He said five of his fighters were killed on Monday and 20 wounded.

But rebels said they were still holding the main streets of Salah Al Deen.

A fighter jet pounded targets in the eastern districts and shelling could be heard in the early morning, an activist told Reuters.

“Two families, about 14 people in total, were believed killed when a shell hit their home and it collapsed this morning,” the activist said. The house was one street away from a school being used as a base by rebels, he said.

As Al Assad’s forces battle to retake Aleppo, fighting has continued across the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence, said more than 270 people — including 62 soldiers — were killed in Syria on Monday