Syria army launches crucial assault

Syrian forces on Saturday pounded the country’s largest city, Aleppo, with military helicopters to flush out rebels in one of the most important battles of the 17-month-old uprising, activists said.

International concern has been mounting over what activists said could be a looming massacre as Syrian troops bombarded the city for the past week, unleashing artillery and strafing it with aircraft. Reinforcements have been pouring into the area in recent days.

Syria’s longtime ally, Russia, added to the chorus of alarm Saturday, saying a “tragedy” was looming in Aleppo. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was unrealistic to expect the Syrian army to stand by while rebels were trying to take over major cities.
Russia has been a key source of support for Syria, although Moscow officials in recent months have said they are simply taking a more even-handed approach while the West offers blind support to the rebels.

With a population of about 3 million, Aleppo is Syria’s commercial hub, a key pillar of support for President Bashar Assad’s regime. On Saturday, activists said soldiers were targeting rebel-controlled neighbourhoods to crush the opposition forces for good.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce fighting has erupted inside those neighborhoods. The group cited its network of sources on the ground in Aleppo. It has been a difficult two weeks for the Syrian government with rebel assaults first on the capital, Damascus, and then on Aleppo, as well as several high-profile defections and a bomb that killed four top security officials.

The government, however, launched a swift counteroffensive and quashed the assault on the capital with a combination of heavy weapons and house-to-house searches. Scores of people were killed. Opposition activists said they expected similar tactics in the coming days to keep Aleppo from falling into rebel hands.

The rebels are outgunned by the Syrian forces, making it difficult for them to hold any territory for long. But the rebels’ run on Damascus and Aleppo suggests they could be gaining in power and organisation.

Saudi Arabia and other nations are in favour of arming the rebels, though no country is known to be doing so. Saudi King Abdullah launched a campaign to collect money for “our brothers in Syria” on July 22, and on Saturday donations had reached more than $72 million.