Syrian rebels launch new assault to break Aleppo siege

Russia says Putin refuses to okay air strikes as rebels attack western Aleppo, regime positions eastern of the city and Latakia province.

A rebel fighter rides a military vehicle in the Dahiyat Al Assad area of western Aleppo on October 28, 2016. Ammar Abdullah / Reuters

Aleppo // Syrian opposition fighters on Friday launched a major assault aimed at breaking a months-long government siege of rebel-held districts in eastern Aleppo.

Rebel groups including the powerful Ahrar Al Sham faction and former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fatah Al Sham fired waves of rockets into government-held western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians, a monitor said.

The rebels also targeted government positions east of Aleppo city and in the coastal province of Latakia, including the Hmeimim military base used by Russian forces allied with the regime.

Syrian state television said the rebels had made no gains and clashes were continuing, while the state news agency Sana said government planes were carrying out air strikes south and west of Aleppo.

A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin said that despite the rebel offensive, he had turned down a defence ministry request to bomb eastern Aleppo.

“The Russian president considers it inappropriate at the current moment to resume strikes on Aleppo,” Dmitry Peskov said.

However, Russia retained “the right in case of extreme necessity to use all the troops and facilities it has to carry out support of the Syrian armed forces at the necessary level”, he said.

Russia claims it has halted air strikes on Aleppo since last week, although monitoring groups and rebels say bombing resumed just hours after a three-day “humanitarian pause” expired on October 22.

The latest rebel offensive comes more than three months into the siege of eastern Aleppo, where more than 250,000 people live, and several weeks after the army began an operation to retake the rebel east.

Rebel groups “announce the start of the battle to break the siege of Aleppo”, said Abu Yusef Muhajir, a military commander and spokesman for Ahrar Al Sham.

“The breaking of the siege is inevitable,” said Yasser Al Yusef, a member of the Nureddine Al Zinki rebel group. “We will protect the civilians and schools and hospitals from Russian attacks and bring our people food and medicine.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said at least 15 civilians, including a woman and two children, were killed in rebel fire on western Aleppo, and more than 100 wounded.

It reported fierce clashes on several fronts on the western and southern outskirts of west Aleppo, with three suicide car bombs targeting a checkpoint in the Dahiyet Al Assad neighbourhood.

Fighting was continuing in the area near a military academy, it said, but had no immediate toll.

The Observatory said rebels had also fired dozens of rockets at the government-controlled Nairab military airport and Aleppo international airport, both east of the city.

Rebels also launched rockets from Idlib province into the government stronghold of Latakia, killing one person and wounding six.

Rockets struck close to the Hmeimim military airport, as well as near president Bashar Al Assad’s ancestral village Qardaha, the monitor said.

Backed by Russian forces, the Syrian government launched an offensive in September to recapture rebel-held areas of Aleppo. The assault killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed infrastructure including hospitals, prompting international outrage.

The “humanitarian pause” implemented by Russia last week was intended to allow civilians and surrendering rebels to exit the east through passages to western neighbourhoods. But few left, and a UN plan to evacuate the wounded failed because security could not be guaranteed.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused UN agencies of “not being professional enough” over Aleppo.

“Their inaction allowed the medical evacuation to be sabotaged,” Mr Lavrov said after a meeting in Moscow with the foreign ministers of Syria and Iran, the Assad regime’s other main ally.

The United States, meanwhile, reported that Russian and American warplanes had a near miss over Syria on October 17, highlighting the risks of a serious mishap in increasingly crowded airspace. The US is conducting air strike against ISIL in Syria as leader of an international coalition against the extremist group.

* Agence France-Presse