JOIN USSyria army retakes old Aleppo mosque
Syria’s army on Sunday regained control of a historic mosque in Aleppo after fierce clashes with rebels in and around the area, a military official and an observer group said.
“The army has expelled the armed groups from the Umayyad mosque,” the official told AFP at the scene of action.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has confirmed the reports.
“Regime forces have managed to retake control of the Great Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, following fierce clashes against rebel fighters around the mosque and the withdrawal of the rebel groups from the mosque,” the group said.
An AFP correspondent in Aleppo reported that clashes were extremely fierce and that they had moved into areas around the mosque.
Rebels had taken control of parts of the mosque complex on Sunday. They said regime forces had been based at the mosque since fighting erupted in Aleppo in mid-summer.
Construction of the mosque began in the early 8th century, though it was destroyed by the Mongols and later rebuilt.
Meanwhile, the New York based-Human Rights Watch has accused government forces of dropping Russian-made cluster bombs over civilian areas in the past week.
HRW previously reported Syrian use of cluster bombs in July and August, but the renewed strikes indicate the government’s determination to regain strategic control in the northwest. Syrian government officials were not immediately available to comment on the HRW report.
Cluster munitions drop hundreds of bomblets on a wide area, designed to kill as many people as possible. Human rights groups say their use near civilian homes can be a war crime.
More than 100 nations have banned their use under a convention which became international law in 2010, but Syria has not signed it, nor have Russia, China or the United States.
Ban on Turkish flights
Buoyed by its success in cornering rebels, Syria in a tit-for-tat announced a ban on Turkish passenger flights over its airspace from Sunday, state news agency SANA said, citing the foreign ministry.
The decision, “in accordance with the principle of reciprocity”, was in retaliation for Turkey’s decision to stop Syrian civil aviation flights over its territory, SANA said.