Deadly Clashes in Aleppo, Fighting in Damascus Palestinian Camp
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Fighting raged in Syria's second city Aleppo on Thursday afternoon, a watchdog said, as regime forces and rebels sent reinforcements to the embattled city.
Intermittent clashes were also reported in the southern belt of Damascus, with the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog saying at least seven people were killed there on Thursday.
Regime forces pounded the southern Salaheddin and eastern Jazamati districts of Aleppo, the country's commercial hub, the Observatory said.
Across Syria, at least 28 people were killed on Thursday, most of them civilians, according to the group.
The violence came as a security source told Agence France Presse that troops were preparing to launch an offensive on rebel-held districts of Aleppo.
"The special forces were deployed on Wednesday and Thursday on the edges of the city, and more troops have arrived to take part in a generalized counter-offensive on Friday or Saturday," according to the source, who is close to the Syrian security apparatus.
Rebels also said a regime assault appeared imminent.
"We expect a major offensive at any time, specifically on areas across the southern belt, from east to west," Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, told AFP via Skype.
Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, which is close to the regime, led Thursday with the headline "Aleppo, the mother of all battles."
An amateur video posted Thursday by activists on YouTube showed a boy sweeping rubble and smashed glass in an otherwise deserted alleyway.
"We are in the Salaheddin neighborhood, and here Assad's gangs shelled this house with mortar rounds," said the unidentified activist shooting the video, as he zoomed in on a building in the district, visibly damaged by a blast.
In southern Damascus, street battles also being fought on Thursday in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, the Observatory said.
"There are clashes on Street 30 in the Yarmouk camp between Syrian regime forces and fighters from rebel units. Explosions can be heard," it said.
A resident of the camp reached by phone confirmed the fighting.
"It started at 7:00 am. The night was quiet. They are using RPGs and heavy machineguns," he told AFP.
Elsewhere in the city, an activist in the southern neighborhood of Tadamun, who gave his name as Abu Qais al-Shami, said several districts in the southern part of the city were under assault on Thursday by regime forces.
"Last night was quiet but people woke up to the sound of explosions and shelling from seven o'clock in the morning," he told AFP.
Another Damascus resident reached by phone told AFP heavy clashes were ongoing in the southern al-Hajar al-Aswad district, where the regime was using helicopter gunships.
Nationwide, at least 143 people were killed on Wednesday, according to Observatory figures, including 75 civilians, 41 soldiers and 27 rebel fighters.
26 July 2012, 07:42
174
The punks wanted a fight, and a fight they will get. I wonder if the West, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey will help their tools and how. Oh, I forgot to mention Morocco and Oman! Apparently, the punks proved to be more stupid than their Lebanese brothers. How is that possible? Can anyone be more stupid than the Lebanese who destroyed their own country through their subservience to the same filthy powers? And apparently have not learned the lesson, these Lebanese idiots!
26 July 2012, 10:40
213
Sounds like you are the only idiot here! You leave no room for educated discussion.
26 July 2012, 11:05
10
Rambo, you are the only one attacking others without making any point or showing any facts, you are the only one acting like a child and leaving no room for educated discussions..go read a book and stop watching Stallone movies...just look at your name, you're dellusional, you are no Rambo
26 July 2012, 11:19
10
the "lebanese idiots" are enjoying the alawi drama, it seems that "assad our leader for ever" is leaning to "never".
26 July 2012, 10:40
00
the1phoenix, what you call "popular uprisings" are actually foreign funded regime changes. It's public knowledge that the Free syrian Army is headed by CIA connected figures and AlQaida fighters are being shipped in from Lybia,Iraq,pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The man who led the charge against Gaddafi, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, is a Qaida leader released from Guatanamo Bay, and on the payroll of MI6. It's also public knowledge that Qatar (who is and always has been a British founded and funded regime) is funneling arms to the Syrian terrorists.
Don't you wonder why Saudi Arabia and Qatar, 2 oppressive, medieval regimes are not having an "Arab Spring' and are supported by the west in their oppressive monarchies? Come on, wake up, you can't be that blind. Take Sheikh Bachir's pictures off your clueless comments, you dishonour his legacy.
26 July 2012, 11:44
26
i could not give a shit who supports who in Syria...all i want is for it to continue for another 100 years....Long LIve The Syrian Civil War!
26 July 2012, 13:04
10
Who's the real loser, Mowaten? The one who makes multiple posts but writes only 4 or 5 words each time? Or the one who replies to virtually every post and has the time to write entire paragraphs? Talk about someone having too much free time on their hands. Go get a job, mate.
26 July 2012, 13:13
04
“...and gaddafi, who knew way too much, had to be eliminated before he could speak...”
OH MY GOSH! With such fantastic political analysis, who needs Intelligence Services??? We can rely on the above brilliant mastermind to feed us this incomprehensible pile of horse chips on a 24/7 basis.
Some people ought to consider having a career, a productive life, family, hobbies, anything other than putting their total and utter ignorance on display for all to mock and ridicule.
26 July 2012, 14:54
01
bass bedi 2a3rif desh 2imtak inta ya bashar ta 7atta 20000 souri ymouto? desh inta mhem ta 7atta balad bi kemlo yfout bi 7areb 2ahliyi? hal2ad metshabass bel kersi? walla 2alla 3al 2ared 7adertak?ce psychopathe n'est il pas prêt à ravager Damas pour sauver sa tête?
kam rajol dawli w siyessi lebneni ghtilo 3ala yad heda l nizam? yemkin bisouriya l 7eriyi kemli? 7ezeb l wa7ad l 2aw7ad walla an gheltan?
26 July 2012, 15:21
31
These Salafists should be slaughtered for driving out and driving fear into the hearts of the Syrian Christians. 80,000 of which have already left Syria. Where is France and the Great US? Where are the democratic nations of Saudi Arabia and Qatar? This is only the beginning of Hell on earth being unleashed by the Islamic Salafist Lucifer himself.
26 July 2012, 16:48
03
Ansar, bah blah bah...keep using the salafists excuse like you kept using the Israeli threat to kill your own people..You are pathetic coward..
26 July 2012, 15:25
15
Actually Mubarak fell because they couldn't garner enough support in the military to intervene. The only difference is ASSad and his father have for decades made sure they had their own people as generals in the army and with the help of hizbollaat and iran's revolutionary guard in killing soldiers who disobey orders they have been able to carry out a military conflict against the people since day one. The killings in Syria started from day one even before the revolutionaries were armed. As for ASSad having the "support of his people"...yes I think we all forgot the "99.999%" referendum jokes, I mean votes.
26 July 2012, 16:55
05
looks like ASSadiste have invaded this page, Mo mowaten, did you prepare a place, coz your hero will soon be sent to hell
26 July 2012, 18:03
10
My previous reply was blocked by NAHARNET???WHY??? I'll try again...
1phoenix, Jordan and Morroco,along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar first of all are oppressive medieval monarchies, worse than Syria ever was, and they have ties to Lebanon's enemy Israel...Why do you think they haven't had an Arab Spring? Why is the west ready to tople Lybia and Syria ( neither of wich had a medieval Islamic thocracy). Why don't you mention Saudi in you reply, or just what suits your point.. Be realistic and remove Sheikh Bashir's picture from your childish posts, he's turning in his grave right now, since he refused to sell Lebanon out to Saudi Arabia or Iran or the US. Also ity is public knowledge that it's AlQaida terrorists fighting the Assad regime in Syria, why are we now supporting these terrorists when it's contrary to Lebanese culture?
26 July 2012, 22:28
00
Palestinians should who solidarity towards the Allochtoons, not the regime(s). Whether it's in Syria, Jordan, or Lebanon.
27 July 2012, 04:04
00
should show solidarity (not should who)
26 July 2012, 22:24
00
Morroco's outcome isn't democratic at all... the people got fooled by their fool king. It isn't over yet.
Any revolution is good, they come from a societal necessity, and even though the first post-revolution years can be turbulent until adjustments are made, they are worth it.
27 July 2012, 01:10
12
mowaten.... anyone with Lebanese flag as avatar and supporting a Syrian regime who killed and maimed tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens and plundered Lebanon for decades is simply SICK. Give up the avatar and implant some Lebanese patriotism.
