Fighting over Syria’s largest city intensified on Friday with some of the fiercest battles in two months as opposition forces launched a new offensive to rout President Bashar al-Assad’s forces from Aleppo, activists said.
Activists reported some of the fiercest clashes yet between the opposition and government forces in Aleppo, where the two sides have been stalemated for weeks.
Fighters from the main opposition group known as the Free Syrian Army began a new push to drive regime forces from their stronghold Aleppo, Syria’s commercial capital on Thursday, calling it the “Decisive Battle,” activists said.
The Syrian military sent text message on cellular telephones to members of the armed rebellion reading: “Game over.”
Aleppo had been relatively quiet until the opposition stormed parts of it in late July. Neither side has been able to deliver a decisive blow, despite sporadic clashes.
“The city is witnessing one of the most violent days. All fronts are on fire,” said Aleppo-based activist Baraa al-Halabi. He said clashes had broken out in neighborhoods including Midan, old Aleppo, Maysaloun, Azamiyeh, Salaheddine, Seif al-Dawla and Sheikh Maksoud.
Some activists and opposition forces said that members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which for decades had close ties with the Syrian government, were participating in the Aleppo battles for the first time since the uprising against Assad’s regime began in March last year.
Al-Halabi said some of the heaviest battles were taking place in a predominantly Kurdish area of Sheikh Maksoud where PKK fighters were fighting alongside regime forces. The major opposition group in the city — the Tawhid Brigade – said on its Facebook page that its members have entered the neighborhood and fought with PKK gunmen there.
However, another Aleppo-based activist, Mohammed Saeed, said PKK fighters withdrew shortly after the fighting began without taking part in the battle.
Meanwhile, state-run Syrian TV says government troops repulsed an attack on the neighborhood with the help of its residents.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the pro-government gunmen in Sheikh Maksoud are local Syrians known as “Mardiliyeh” — a clan known to support the regime.
The reports could not be independently confirmed because the government has imposed tight restrictions on the media.
In July, government forces withdrew from Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria and were quickly replaced by Kurdish fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD. The group is affiliated with the PKK terrorists in Turkey. The PKK maintains bases in northern Iraq from where they launch hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets.
Government forces also stormed several tense neighborhoods in the Syrian capital, Damascus, activists said. Troops raided homes looking for activists in Barzeh, Jobar and Qaboun, according to the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees.
Both groups also reported some fighting between opposition forces and government troops in and near the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.
(Today’s Zaman)
