Syrian forces pound rebel frontline in Aleppo

Smoke rises over the Salah al-Din neighborhood in central Aleppo during clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and Syrian Army soldiers on Aug 4.

A Syrian army helicopter fired machinegun rounds and troops shelled rebel positions in Aleppo today, a Reuters witness said, as they tried to break through the insurgents' frontline in a battleground district in the country's largest city.

Earlier in the day, Syrian forces clashed with rebels around Aleppo's television and radio station, activists said, and a local rebel commander said his fighters were preparing for a "strong offensive" by government forces on the city.

Syrian troops backed by armor stormed the last opposition bastion in Damascus yesterday in a drive to crush a rebel offensive that coincided with a bomb attack that killed four of President Bashar al-Assad's senior security officials.

The onslaught continued today as jets bombarded the capital in a bid to snuff out resistance, a resident said.

Syria's civil war has intensified in the last few weeks, with fighting engulfing Damascus and Aleppo for the first time in the 17-month-old uprising against Assad family rule.

The two cities are crucial prizes for both sides in an increasingly brutal struggle that has eluded all attempts at a diplomatic solution and risks igniting a wider conflagration.

Syrian town fades

into ruins

U.N. member states yesterday voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Syrian government at a special session of the 193-nation General Assembly that Western diplomats said highlighted the isolation of Assad supporters Russia and China.

Western and Arab powers want Assad to step aside but Russia and China have used their Security Council vetoes to block attempts to force him out. They say outside interference is prolonging the bloodshed.

In Aleppo's battleground Salaheddine district, rebels from the Free Syrian Army hid in alleyways, dodging the Syrian army's bullets and tank rounds that struck a building in the district on Saturday.

"There is one helicopter and we're hearing two explosions every minute," a Reuters reporter said.

A Syrian activist told Reuters the rebels had earlier sought to extend their area of control from the Salaheddine district, where the most intense fighting has been focused, northwards to the area around the television and radio station.

Sniper fire

"The Free Syrian Army pushed from Salaheddine to al-Adhamiya where they clashed this morning with Syrian troops. But they had to retreat," the activist who identified himself as Barraa al-Halabi told Reuters.

A 19-year-old fighter called Mu'awiya al-Halabi, who was at the scene, said Syrian snipers surrounded the station and targeted the rebels.

"We were inside it for a few hours after clashes with the Syrian army but the Syrian army sent snipers and surrounded the TV station and as soon as morning came, the army started shooting. One of our fighters was martyred and four were wounded," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said 110 people had been killed yesterday, including 88 civilians, also confirmed the clash near the television and radio station. It said the terrestrial signal for Syrian television in Aleppo had been cut off.

Syrian television said a large number of terrorists, the term it uses for the rebels, were killed and wounded after they tried to storm the television and radio station in Aleppo.

A Reuters journalist who witnessed the clashes said a helicopter strafed rebel positions with machinegun fire near a police station which anti-Assad fighters took on Friday.

"Wake up, wake up. The army's coming," local rebel commander Abu Ali told fighters sleeping in the Zibdeyyeh police station.

Black smoke rose into the sky from areas of Salaheddine, which is seen as a gateway for the Syrian army into the city of 2.5 million inhabitants. Its fate could determine the outcome of a war that has already claimed some 18,000 lives.

A different local rebel commander in Aleppo said he expected a Syrian army attack on rebels "within days", echoing Herve Ladsous, head of the United Nation's peacekeeping department, who said there had been a "considerable buildup of military means".

"We have information that the Syrian army is planning a strong offensive against Aleppo. We know they are planning to attack the city using tanks and aircraft, shooting at us for three to four days and they plan to take the city," Colonel Abdel-Jabbar al-Oqaidi said in Aleppo.

Faced with the Syrian army's superior firepower, Oqaidi said the rebels were counting on mass defections by government soldiers once the offensive started.

"At the moment the soldiers cannot leave their bases and they are too afraid to defect. Once they are inside our city they will take off their uniforms and join us," he said.

Clashes in Damascus, at least 9 dead in Syria: NGO

Rebels and regime troops clashed in the Damascus district of Qadam today as at least nine people were killed in violence across Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Apart from the fighting in Qadam, hundreds of youths gathered late Tuesday in the upmarket district of Mazzeh, also in the capital, and chanted anti-regime slogans, it said.

In the commercial hub of Aleppo, two soldiers were killed when rebels attacked a checkpoint overnight, the Britain-based monitoring group said, adding that loud blasts were heard in the northern city on Wednesday.

The Observatory also reported an attack in the northwestern province of Idlib on a bus transporting soldiers, killing as many as 11 troops although the exact number was impossible to verify.

Anti-regime activists say much of Idlib has been "liberated" from the regime's control.

"That doesn't mean the violence stops, it just means they shell us from further away," an activist in Idlib who identified himself as Nour Eddine al-Abdou told AFP via Skype, adding he had no information on the bus attack.

"When they start shelling, which is usually at night, women, children and the elderly fill the underground shelters," Abdou said. "It's violent and frightening, but we feel some joy because we know victory is possible." Of those killed on Wednesday, three were civilians and four were rebel fighters, apart from the two deaths in Aleppo and the Idlib attack, the Observatory said.

The Observatory said 82 people were killed in violence on Tuesday: 30 civilians, 26 soldiers and 26 rebels.

According to estimates from the group, more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in mid-March last year, at first with peaceful protests.

It is not possible to independently verify death tolls since the United Nations at the end of 2011 stopped compiling such figures.

Turkish jet clearly violated Syria's sovereignty – Damascus tells its Russian Supporter & Arms Supplier

The downing of a Turkish plane by Syria was an act of self-defense against a violation of its sovereignty, the Syrian foreign ministry has said. Damascus insists it was within its right to open fire on unidentified aircraft violating its airspace.

The statement by the Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Magdissi comes a day after Ankara accused Damascus of violating international law in last Friday’s incident.

Magdissi said the Turkish claim that their military jet was shot down in international air space after leaving Syrian territory was false. The aircraft was hit by air defense artillery, not a surface-to-air missile, and this weapon’s maximum range is just 1.2 kilometers, he said in a statement aired on Syrian TV.

Commenting on the claims that no warning has been given before the downing, Magdissi said the Syrian defense forces “have been taken by surprise to see such a plane.”

“And even the plane was Syrian and we could not identify it, we would have shot it down,” he said.

He added Syria did its best to mitigate the consequences of the incident by promptly contacting their Turkish counterparts and offering all due assistance in the search and rescue operations.

This was done despite the fact that relations between the two countries have deteriorated over the past 15 months, he stressed.