Aleppo offensive: Syria Army presses on

Damascus, July 12: Syria’s Army has extended a nationwide truce for another three days, but continued on Tuesday to press its campaign against rebels in the battered northern city of Aleppo.

In a statement late Monday, the armed forces said it would “extend the freeze on fighting on all Syrian territory for 72 hours beginning July 12.”

It was the second extension to the temporary truce, first announced last week to mark Id ul- Fitr, which is the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramzan.

But the ceasefire has produced little respite in fighting, with ongoing strikes by the regime and its Russian ally reported around the city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

“Russian and regime warplanes are shelling the northern edges of the city and the regime seized several buildings in Leramun,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Rebels were using Leramun, an industrial district on the northwestern edge of Aleppo, and the nearby Bani Zeid neighbourhood to fire rockets and artillery onto regime- held parts of the city, he said.

“The immediate goal is to push opposition fighters out of the city to stop the shelling,” he told AFP.

In recent days, rebels have fired a barrage of missiles into the governmentheld western side of Aleppo, killing dozens of civilians. Rebel forces in the eastern part of Aleppo have also waged battles with regime troops along the frontline.