Syria forces
take third of rebel-held Aleppo, civilians flee
2016-11-28 19:53:36.0
ALEPPO, Syria, Nov. 28: (AFP) - Government forces have retaken a third of rebel-held territory in Aleppo, forcing nearly 10,000 civilians to flee as they pressed their offensive to retake Syria's second city.
2016-11-28 19:53:36.0
ALEPPO, Syria, Nov. 28: (AFP) - Government forces have retaken a third of rebel-held territory in Aleppo, forcing nearly 10,000 civilians to flee as they pressed their offensive to retake Syria's second city.
In a major breakthrough in the push to retake the whole
city, regime forces captured six rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo over
the weekend, including Masaken Hanano, the biggest of those in eastern Aleppo.
On Sunday, the 13th day of the operation, they also took
control of the adjacent neighbourhoods of Jabal Badra and Baadeeen and captured
three others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Inzarat, Al-Sakan al-Shaabi and Ain al-Tall have all
returned to regime hands and government forces have made large forays into
Sakhur and nearby Haidariya, the monitor said.
It said government forces are "in control of most of
the northern part" of Aleppo.
"The rebels have lost at least 30 percent of the
territory they once controlled in Aleppo," Observatory chief Rami Abdel
Rahman said.
The regime gains came as its aircraft pounded rebel
positions and amid heavy clashes between the opposition and forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad in the strategic Sakhur district.
Masaken Hanano was the first district the rebels took in
the summer of 2012 in a move that divided the city into a rebel-held east and a
regime-controlled west.
Around 250,000 civilians besieged for months in the east
have faced serious food and fuel shortages.
The Observatory said that nearly 10,000 civilians had fled
east Aleppo overnight Saturday -- at least 6,000 to the Kurdish-controlled
northern district of Sheikh Maksoud, with the rest fleeing to government-held
areas.
"It is the first exodus of this kind from east Aleppo
since 2012," Abdel Rahman said.
- Regime sights on Sakhur -
Syrian state television broadcast images of a crowd of
civilians including women and children gathered around green buses that it said
had come to pick them up in Masaken Hanano.
One woman was shown pushing a stroller and many others
carried plastic bags on their heads as bombardment was heard in the distance.
Official media said they were taken "by the army to
safe areas".
Yasser al-Youssef, from the rebel group Nureddin al-Zinki,
said opposition fighters were consolidating their positions in Sakhur.
"We are strengthening our positions to defend the city
and residents, but the aircraft are destroying everything methodically, area by
area," he said of a regime campaign of air strikes.
Sakhur lies on a stretch of just 1.5 kilometres (less than
a mile) between west Aleppo and Masaken Hanano, now both regime-controlled.
If the regime takes control of Sakhur, east Aleppo would be
split in two from north to south, dealing a further blow to the armed
opposition.
The latest regime push comes after days of intense
bombardment on the east, which has been pounded with air strikes, shelling and
barrel bombs.
On Saturday, dozens of families fled Sakhur and Haidariya as
regime raids and artillery killed at least 18 civilians in several districts,
the Britain-based Observatory said.
At least 225 civilians, including 27 children, have been
killed since the government's latest assault on east Aleppo began on November
15.
- IS chemical attack -
Rebel forces also intensified rocket attacks on western
districts overnight, killing at least four civilians and wounding dozens, the
Observatory said.
Such attacks have killed a total of 27 civilians since the
offensive began, among them 11 children.
The United Nations has a plan to deliver aid to Aleppo and
evacuate the sick and wounded, which rebel factions have approved but which
Damascus has not yet agreed. Guarantees are also needed from regime ally
Russia.
Once a commercial and industrial hub, Aleppo has seen some
of the worst fighting in Syria's nearly six-year war.
The conflict broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression
of anti-government protests, and has since evolved into a complex war involving
different factions and foreign powers.
On Sunday, the Turkish army said that 22 pro-Ankara Syrian
rebels were hit by a chemical gas attack from Islamic State group jihadists in
northern Syria.
The Turkish army is backing the Syrian fighters in an
unprecedented cross-border operation it says is targeting both IS and the
Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara considers to be a
"terrorist" group.
The YPG is a key component of a US-backed Arab-Kurdish
alliance fighting to oust IS from its de facto Syria capital of Raqa, after the
jihadist group overran large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.
Syria's war has killed more than 300,000 people and
displaced more than half the population.
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