19/10/12

#Syrian Rebels Bogged Down in

Aleppo

Scott Bobb

ALEPPO — For months, rebels of the Free Syrian Army have been waging battles with government forces in parts of Syria’s most populous city, Aleppo. The fight is largely at a stalemate with rebels kept at bay by government snipers and poundings by planes and helicopters.

In the divided Syrian city of Aleppo, rebels of the Free Syria Army are preparing a mission into the battle zone.

They hold a short planning session and then head out through a firefight along their street.

Inside the battle-scarred Old City, the frontline is constantly shifting. The rebels make advances, but often must retreat under government aerial bombardments against which they have no strong defense.

There are snipers on this street. The rebels rig a mirror to see around the corner. One throws a homemade grenade at the snipers drawing a quick response.

The fighters are retrieving the bodies of a family that was killed when a mortar hit their kitchen gas canister. Three children and their aunt died. The mother was wounded. The father died of a heart attack when he saw them.

Abu Ahmed (not his real name) says the bodies have lain here for nearly two weeks. The rebels could not reach them because of the fighting.

“Just come and see, in the name of God, this is a humanitarian crisis,” said Ahmed. “The people are dying in front of us, and we can’t do anything. Every day there is one, or two or ten cases like this.”

It is an emotional moment, but still dangerous. To avoid the snipers they pass through apartment after apartment, using makeshift tunnels.

With citizens being wounded by the day across Aleppo, there appears little sign of ending the battles that have erupted over the last four months. Residents can only hope for an interlude as international efforts for a cease-fire continue.

16/10/12

#Syria, Battle Rockers | | targeting a gathering of regime forces

16/10/12

FNN #Syria Wadi al Daief A video

from the battle of Amr Biin al A’s

Battalion

13/10/12

Al-Qusayr | Homs | FSA Moves to

Meet Regime Forces in Battle

01/10/12

Champions Revolutionary Council military has been through editing air defense brigade in East Gouta and seize eight anti Airways and a number of rockets and a large quantity of weapons and individual ammunition and destruction mechanisms gang stamens and destroying the infrastructure of the battalion and the deaths of many Hbihh Wallace

#Syria, Heavy battle rages west of Aleppo

01/10/12

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Antakya, Turkey (near the Syrian border) said that the battle for control of a strategic area west of Aleppo has grown in ferocity.

“It is a colossal fight - it’s an unusual one because it’s not urban, like Aleppo. It’s over open ground, open terrain, and, of course, despite the numbers, we’re told that there are something like 1,500 rebel fighters on the ground, at any given time, matching up to around that same number in the Assad forces,” said Simmons.

“The numbers might be the same, but of course, the military resources are totally different, because the Assad forces have heavy artillery, they have air cover, they have helicopters dropping bombs, so this is a really big fight. Big losses are being taken, we understand, from both sides.”

Rebel fighters are attempting to take control of a base belonging to a government troop of fighters called Force 46.

In #Syria Fighting, Aleppo World Heritage Site Burns

01/10/12

A Syrian rebel fighter fires towards troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad as his comrade ducks for cover during clashes in Aleppo’s Old City on Sunday. Photographer: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

By Glen Carey and Zaid Sabah on September 29, 2012

Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad fought with rebels in the commercial hub of Aleppo in a deadly battle that set fire to an ancient marketplace that was once a tourist attraction.

Fighting in the country’s largest city continued for the third day in what insurgents said would be a “decisive battle” to control Aleppo. Rebels captured four neighborhoods, Al Jazeera reported, citing an interview with a local activist. Syrian government troops killed 126 people yesterday across the country, including 64 in or around the capital Damascus, the opposition Local Coordination Committees said in an e-mailed statement.

International efforts to end the 18-month conflict have failed to stop the violence as rebels continue the fight, which began in March 2011, to overthrow Assad. The conflict has killed 30,000 people, according to estimates by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group.

Fighting has been deadlocked in Aleppo since rebels pushed into the city in July. Government forces have resorted to heavy weaponry, including attack aircraft, helicopter gunships and artillery, to dislodge rebels from their positions.

Combatants from both sides suffered losses during a battle for Jandoul Square in Aleppo, the Observatory for Human Rights said on its Facebook page. In Deir Ezzor, four rebels died when they attacked a check point in Siyasiya near a security branch, while four government troops died in clashes at a check point outside the city near the village of Salhiya, the group said on the Facebook page.

Shops Burned

Hundreds of shops were burned in Aleppo’s historic market, the Souk al-Madina, Al Jazeera reported. Videos showed black smoke hanging over the city and a wall of flames in what appeared to be one of the market’s passageways, the New York Times reported. The medieval souk, with vaulted stone alleyways, carved wooden doors and shops filled with silk, spices and other luxury goods, is part of Aleppo’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The two sides have blamed each other for damage in Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, the Times reported. Activists told Al Jazeera that army snipers were making it difficult to approach the marketplace and they blamed heavy shelling and gunfire for causing the blaze.

Rebels said they had taken control of Bab Antakya, a stone gateway to the Old City, while other activists said fighting was continuing, Al Jazeera reported.

Medieval Aleppo souks destroyed by fire as battle rages in #Syria

29/09/12

Jo Adet

Syrian activists say residents are struggling to control blaze in labyrinthine markets which were once a tourist attraction

A fire rages at a medieval souk in Aleppo, Syria, in an image taken from Shaam News Network video. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

A huge fire has destroyed parts of the medieval souks in Aleppo, Syria, following raging battles between rebels and government troops.

The city is a Unesco world heritage site and the labyrinth of narrow alleys and shops was once a major tourist attraction and is one of Syria’s largest commercial hubs.

Over the past two months, the city, home to 2.5 million people, has become a focus of the insurgency against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with near daily fighting and shelling.

Activists posted online videos which showed the fire around wooden doors and shops and a pall of smoke hanging over the city on Saturday.

Ahmad al-Halabi, an activist based in Aleppo, said residents were struggling to control the blaze with a limited number of fire extinguishers and low water supply: “It’s a disaster. The fire is threatening to spread to remaining shops,” he said. “It is a very difficult and tragic situation there.”

The souks of Aleppo, a maze of vaulted passageways with shops that sell everything from foods to fabrics, perfumes, spices and artisan souvenirs, are a tactical prize for the combatants. They lie beneath the city’s towering citadel where activists say regime troops and snipers have taken up positions.

Many of the shops have wooden doors, and clothes, fabrics and leather wares inside helped spread the fire, activists said.

Rebels and government troops have roughly controlled half of the city each since the offensive began in August.

The British-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across Syria, said Assad’s forces and rebels were blaming each other for the blaze. The observatory estimates that 30,000 people have died across the country since fighting began.

In awarding heritage status, Unesco said Aleppo’s “13th-century citadel, 12th-century Great Mosque and various 17th-century madrasas, palaces, caravanserais and hammams all form part of the city’s cohesive, unique urban fabric.”

Aleppo’a souks are not the only Syrian cultural treasures to have fallen victim to the violence following the country’s uprising and the crackdown by the Assad regime.

Some of the country’s most significant sites, including centuries-old fortresses, have been caught in the crossfire in battles between regime forces and rebels. Others have been turned into military bases. In Homs, where up to 7,000 are estimated to have died, historic mosques and souk areas have also been smashed and artefacts stolen.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory, said it was not clear how the fire at the Aleppo market was started but also said a large part of the souks had been destroyed.

25/09/12

Syria: fighting rages in Aleppo’s

Bustan al-Qasr

In Aleppo, Syria’s commercial hub, troops and Free Syrian Army rebels have been locked in fierce fighting since mid-July. In the rebel-controlled neighbourhood of Bustan al-Qasr, battles rage and civilians are caught under sniper fire.Duration:

25/09/12

Battle rages for Syrian rebels in

Aleppo

Free Syrian Army brigade fighters positioned in the Saif al-Dawla and Izaa districts of Aleppo continued operations on Sunday as rebels said they now control most of the country and have moved their command centre from Turkey to “liberated areas” inside Syria.

24/09/12

#Syria, Aleppo battalion Messenger of Allah combing the neighborhood

21/09/12

A #Syrian man and a child walk past two bodies laying on the street in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Thursday (Sept 20, 2012). Syrians troops backed by helicopter gunships clashed with rebels near an army barracks in Aleppo as pre-dawn battles broke out near a military airport elsewhere in the province, a monitor said.

08/09/12

#Syria, F.S.A FREE SYRIAN ARMY WIN OVER SOME TANKS AFTER BATTLES

06/09/12

#Syria, ENGLISH SUBTITLES: Idlib || During a battle between the Free Syrian Army and the regime’s forces

06/09/12

#Syria, ENG SUBTITLES: Idlib || Jabal Al-Wastany Brigade heads towards a planned assault on Assad’s soldiers