Syria opposition forces advance in Aleppo city

13/04/2014| IslamWeb

Syrian opposition forces have advanced in Aleppo, killing scores of troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, Al Jazeera's reporter in the northern city said.

Opposition fighters stormed the Ramouseh district in an attempt to cut the regime's supply route between the city's international airport and a large army base, the reporter said on Saturday.

The latest advances came after a series of gains for the opposition in the divided city over the past few days. Opposition forces from the Islamic Front and Jabhat al-Nusra have seized control of Rashidin neighborhood and parts of Jamiat al-Zahra district where the notorious air force intelligence headquarters are located.

The regime has for several months stepped up its military campaign on Aleppo, pounding the city’s opposition-held areas with a barrage of barrel bombs and air strikes.

On Saturday, nine people, including children, died in barrel bomb shelling on two villages in Aleppo’s western suburbs, activists said.

Opposition fighters still control most of Syria’s east and north, but anti-Assad efforts in the eastern region have been undermined by infighting between different opposition groups.

At least 68 people have been reported killed in two days of clashes in Deir ez-Zor between a loose coalition of opposition groups, which include Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the new wave of infighting, which erupted on Thursday, was concentrated in the village of Haseen along the Iraqi border after ISIL members were forced out of the nearby town of al-Bukamal.

Opposition forces have been fighting each other in Deir ez-Zor province for weeks over territory previously captured from Assad's forces, including oil fields.

PHOTO CAPTION

This photo provided by the anti-regime activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man standing on rubble of houses that were destroyed by Syrian regime forces airstrikes in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, April 12, 2014.

Al-Jazeera