Fighting surges in key battleground
Rebels mount ‘decisive’ campaign for country’s biggest city
BEIRUT – Fighting over Syria’s largest city intensified Friday, with the most widespread battles reported there in two months as rebel forces launched a new offensive to rout President Bashar Assad’s forces from Aleppo, activists said.
Some of the heaviest fighting erupted in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maksoud, which was drawn into the conflict for the first time. Kurds are Syria’s largest minority and have been split in their loyalties since the uprising against Assad began 18 months ago.
Sheikh Maksoud is mostly under the control of a progovernment Kurdish group.
Aleppo, a city of three million that was once a bastion of support for Assad, has emerged as a key battleground in Syria’s civil war. Its fall would give the opposition a major strategic victory, with a stronghold in the north near the Turkish border. A rebel defeat would, at minimum, buy the regime more time.
“The city is witnessing one of the most violent days. All fronts are on fire,” Aleppobased activist Baraa al-Halabi said.
In the diplomatic arena, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hosting representatives of the Friends of Syria group — a coalition that includes the United States, the European Union and the Arab League — on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The group is seeking better co-operation among the groups that oppose Assad.
And in Geneva, the UN’s top human rights body voted Friday to extend the mission of its independent expert panel probing alleged war crimes in Syria.
The panel, led by Brazilian professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, has blamed Syria’s government forces for the majority of serious abuses since the uprising began in March 2011.
The two sides have been locked in a stalemate, with neither able to deliver a decisive blow. The standoff has been most apparent in Aleppo, where each side controls roughly half the area. Late Thursday, rebel commanders from the main group of fighters, the Free Syrian Army, announced they are embarking on what they called a “decisive battle” for the city.
Since then, heavy clashes have been reported along the front lines between rebel- and regime-held areas.
Despite the escalating bloodshed in Syria, the international community remains sharply divided over how to end the conflict.
The UN Security Council is deadlocked, with Syria allies Russia and China having repeatedly blocked harsher measures against the Assad regime sought by Western nations and the rebels’ allies in the Middle East.