Fighting
in Aleppo intensifies amid conflicting reports
Fierce
fighting continues in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where government
troops and the rebel army have been battling for more than a week.
Pro-Assad forces claims they have managed to recapture several areas,
while rebels deny the reports.
RT,
31
July, 2012
Tuesday
brought little relief to Syria’s second-largest city. State news
outlets reported the elimination of several rebel bases and the
seizing of weapons caches. According to Syria TV, the militants
detained included hired guns from Yemen, Pakistan and Russia’s
Chechnya. This adds to the earlier capture of mercenaries from Libya,
Tunisia and Egypt.
Pro-Assad
troops have gained control of the Salaheddine district in Aleppo’s
southwest, as well as the Sakhur and al-Sukkari neighborhoods.
Militants are being forced out of other districts, the Al-Watan daily
newspaper reports.
The
Free Syrian Army (FSA) contested those claims, claiming they control
at least 60 per cent of Aleppo. The FSA’s head in Aleppo, Colonel
Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi, said the government forces "had not
progressed one meter.”
The
FSA claimed they seized seven tanks from the pro-Assad forces. They
also claimed victory in the northern suburb of Anadan, which would
mean a supply route from Turkey to Aleppo is now controlled by
opposition forces.
Military
sources in Damascus could not confirm the seizure of Anadan by FSA
fighters.
The
British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that
rebels seized two police stations. Around 40 policemen and officers,
as well as one general, were said to have been killed in fighting
that lasted for hours.
According
to the rebels, government forces have withdrawn from the town of
al-Bab. The opposition claims that this is the army's last urban base
in the region, outside of Aleppo. At the same time, a source in
Aleppo told the RIA Novosti news agency that the rebels are suffering
heavy losses.
“The
fighters of the Free Syrian Army are surrounded by the Syrian forces
who continue to strike them,” the source told RIA Novosti in a
telephone call.
In
the meantime, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a
televised address that his country would not remain indifferent to
developments in Syria that could affect Turkey's national security.
The statement came a day after reports that the Turkish military had
asked the country’s meteorology department to include Syria in a
weather forecast system specifically designed to assist the army
guide missile strikes.
Last
week, Erdogan said Turkey would not hesitate to take action against
Kurdish rebels in northern Syria. The statement came amidst reports
of five cities along the Turkish-Syrian border being seized by
Kurdish militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),
which is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US,
the EU and NATO.
Over
200,000 flee the city – UN
As
the fighting rages on, with reports of artillery and mortars being
used in the commercial hub, the streams of refugees fleeing Aleppo
continue to intensify.
The
UN reports that some 200,000 people have left the city since the
fighting began, fleeing to the neighboring provinces of Idlib and
Latakia. Many are attempting to flee Syria, now in the seventeenth
month of violent uprisings against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
"It
is not known how many people remain trapped in places where fighting
continues today," said Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs.
The
office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that exit routes
out of war-torn Aleppo are increasingly dangerous due to roadblocks
and armed gangs. Shelling has been reported in other parts of Syria,
according to Babacar Gaye, the head of the UN Supervision Mission in
Syria.
Gaye
said he witnessed serious damage from shelling and fighting in the
nearby town of Rastan, adding that he had personally seen heavy
shelling in the city of Homs. On Sunday, Gaye’s convoy was attacked
by government tanks, but no one was hurt, UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon told reporters on Monday.
Ashraf
El-Bayoumi, a political analyst at Alexandria University, said the
Syrian government is reluctant to attack contested areas before
civilians have a chance to leave them.
“I
have been in touch with people in Syria and there are large parts of
Aleppo which are very quiet, except in the areas where rebels poured
in several days ago,” he told RT. “One notices that the
government is trying to minimize civilian casualties as much as it
can.”
Syrian
fighters getting younger
RT’s
Oksana Boyko, reporting from Damascus, says that many of those who
die fighting for or against President Assad across Syria are in their
late teens or early twenties.
“We
founded this cell to support the young fighters and to feel their
pain and to experience what they are experiencing on the ground and
to help with the operations,” says 23-year-old Omar from a group of
FSA snipers operating in a deserted town 40 kilometers south-west of
Homs. Twice a day the group goes out to shell a nearby Syrian army
checkpoint. Omar has left his family in Dubai to join the uprising.
On
the other side of the barricades, there are fighters who are not much
older and are also ready to die.
“No,
I'm not afraid to die. I would be honored to be in the place of my
fallen comrades and to become a martyr defending my country. It's
every man's duty,” says 19-year-old Subhi, a conscript in Assad’s
army, who is tasked with putting bodies into coffins.
Martyrdom
is glorified in Muslim countries and many young soldiers profess
their readiness to die for their cause.
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