Fighting flares up in Aleppo as rebels warn of new offensive

Air strikes hit city's east as rebel groups Jaish Al Fatah and Nour El Din Al Zinki say operation to break government siege of the area is imminent.

Rebel fighters ride on the outskirts of Tell Rifaat town in northern Aleppo province, which they are fighting to take from Syria Kurdish control. Khalil Ashawi / Reuters / October 22, 2016

Aleppo // Air strikes hit eastern Aleppo on Sunday amid renewed fighting between rebels and regime forces on the front line dividing the northern Syrian city and on its outskirts.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes and artillery fire hit rebel-held eastern districts after heavy clashes overnight.

It said at least three people were wounded in the artillery fire in the east, while rebels fired rockets and mortar shells at a government-held neighbourhood.

Russian and Syrian air strikes on eastern Aleppo were suspended for three days after weeks of heavy bombardment under a “humanitarian pause” Moscow declared to allow civilians and rebel fighters to leave the area. They resumed on Saturday night after the truce expired.

On the southern outskirts of Aleppo, government forces and allied fighters seized territory overlooking the rebel-held areas of Rashideen and Khan Tuman. The fighting killed at least 20 fighters, mostly from Jabhat Fatah Al Sham, a former Al Qaeda affiliate, the monitor said.

In May, militants from the group – when it was still known as Jabhat Al Nusra and considered Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch – led the capture of Khan Tuman. The move dealt a blow to the Russian-Syrian campaign to expel rebels from Aleppo, as the area overlooks the motorway connecting Aleppo and government-held cities in the centre of Syria.

Meanwhile, a powerful and hardline Islamist rebel coalition announced that a campaign to break the government’s siege of the city’s east would begin “within hours”.

In footage circulated by the pro-opposition Qasioun News Agency, Jaish Al Fatah commander Ali Abu Adi Al Aloush said that “zero hour has drawn near”, and that militants and kamikaze fighters had begun moving toward Aleppo.

The Nour El Din Al Zinki rebel faction in Aleppo also said an operation to break the government’s siege was imminent.

The group warned civilians to stay away from government positions around the city. It said rebels would not target civilians in government-held districts but warned of collateral damage from the anticipated operations.

Regime forces backed by Russian air power have imposed a siege on eastern Aleppo since August. They launched an operation on September 22 to recapture the area that killed about 500 people and wounded more than 2,000 before Moscow announced the humanitarian pause from Thursday.

The army opened eight corridors for residents and rebels to leave Aleppo, but only a handful of civilians were reported to have done so.

Russian officials and Syrian state media accused rebels of preventing people from leaving and using civilians as shields.

The unilateral ceasefire also ended without any evacuations by the United Nations, which had hoped to bring wounded civilians out of the rebel-held east and deliver aid.

No aid has entered eastern Aleppo since July 7 and UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned that food rations will run out by the end of the month.

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Sunday urged the international community to “do everything” to end the “massacre” in Aleppo and resume efforts to reach a political agreement. “We cannot come to a negotiation under the bombs,” he said during a visit to the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

France has been leading calls for European sanctions on Russia over its involvement in the Syrian conflict on behalf of president Bashar Al Assad.

Russia and Iran are the main allies of Mr Al Assad, whose forces are also backed by Iranian troops and fighters from Hizbollah, a Lebanese Shiite militia that Iran supports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Moscow’s intervention in September last year was meant to liberate Syria and keep Mr Al Assad in power.

“Either Assad is in Damascus, or Al Nusra is,” he said in reference to Jabhat Fatah Al Sham by its former name. “There is no third option here.”

North of Aleppo, there were renewed clashes the city between Turkish-backed rebel fighters and Syrian Kurdish forces over territory formerly held by ISIL.

The United States has supported both the Turkish-backed forces and the Syrian Kurdish forces in the area, though it has clarified that it does not support the Syrian Kurdish forces that have come under Turkish attack in the Aleppo countryside.

More than 300,000 people have been killed and more than half of the population displaced since Syria’s conflict began in March 2011.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press