Kiwi reporter Anita McNaught reports for Al Jazeera from Aleppo, 2 August 2012. She says the Free Syrian Army is “consolidating its hold” over eastern Aleppo, seizing fortified military bases and moving close to the centre of the country’s biggest city.
by Al Jazeera
3 August 2012
article abridged
Syria’s main armed opposition group has said it has taken control of more than “50 per cent” of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial hub.
Government forces continued on Friday to shell rebel-held areas and bomb them with advanced fighter jets, destroying many residential buildings.
The FSA claims to have consolidated its control in the city’s east, while also maintaining a grip on central neighbourhoods including Salaheddin and Bab al-Hadid.
When a government security source was questioned about the lack of a ground offensive by the army in Aleppo, he said: “The regime is testing the rebels’ defences in order to uncover their hiding places before annihilating them in a major surgical operation.”
Meanwhile, a top UN official said on Thursday that the “main battle” for Aleppo is about to start.
“The spiral of violence is still increasing,” said Herve Ladsous, UN peacekeeping chief. “We have reason to believe that the main battle is about to start [in Aleppo].”
Syrian rebels used tanks for the first time to attack a military airport northwest of Aleppo on Thursday, a rebel commander said. Abdel Aziz Salameh told AFP news agency that his forces had captured four tanks from government forces.
Ladsous said unarmed military observers who had been near Aleppo have seen the heavy weapons.
“We know that [the opposition] have tanks, that they have armored personnel carriers et cetera – that’s a fact,” he said.
In a separate development, mobile phone and Internet services, cut since Wednesday night, were being gradually restored in Aleppo by Thursday afternoon.
As clashes between government forces and rebels took place nationwide, at least 67 people, including 36 civilians, 16 soldiers and 15 rebels, were killed across the country on Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In the capital Damascus, heavy fighting erupted in the southern Tadamun district, the Syrian Observatory said.
“Syrian troops withdrew from the neighbourhood following heavy clashes with rebel battalions, which resulted in the killing of four rebels and at least three soldiers,” the UK-based activist group added.
Also, for the first time, regime forces raided the exclusive Muhajireen neighbourhood of north Damascus, arresting about 20 young men.
Kia Ora Gaza 