Battle rages near Aleppo, air onslaught continues
AMMAN: Warplanes bombed a strategic camp on the northern edge of Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government and rebel forces battled for control of the high ground in a Russian-backed offensive that has left Washington’s Syria policy in tatters.
Planes also continued to pound residential parts of the town, flattening buildings, rebels and residents said. More than 250,000 civilians are trapped in the besieged opposition sector and there is growing concern about the escalation in violence since a cease-fire, announced just two weeks ago, unraveled.
In their first major ground advance of the offensive, the Syrian army and its militia allies seized control of the Handarat Palestinian refugee camp, a few kilometers north of Aleppo, only for rebels to counterattack a few hours later.
Rebels said on Sunday they had retaken the camp before the bombing started.
“We retook the camp, but the regime burned it with phospho- rous bombs ... We were able to protect it, but the bombing burned our vehicles,” said Abu Al-Hassanien, a commander in a rebel operations room that includes the main brigades fighting to repel the army assault.
The army, which is being helped by Iranian- backed militias, Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah mili- tant group and a Palestinian militia, acknowledged rebels had retaken Handarat.
“The Syrian army is targeting the armed groups positions in Handarat camp,” a military source was quoted on state media as saying.
The assault on Aleppo could be the biggest battle yet in a civil war that has killed hundreds of thou- sands of people and driven 11 million from their homes.
Residents say air strikes on eastern Aleppo since the offensive was announced on Thursday have been more intense than ever, using more powerful bombs. Scores of people have been killed in the last few days.