Syria: Regime forces 'assault rebels'

23 Jul 2012, 6:10 am   -   Source: AAP
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Syrian activists say forces led by President Bashar al-Assad's brother have used helicopter gunships in a new assault on rebels in the capital Damascus.

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Feared forces led by President Bashar al-Assad's brother have used helicopter gunships in a new assault on rebels in Damascus, activists say, as clashes also raged in Syria's second city, Aleppo.

The Fourth Brigade headed by Maher al-Assad mounted an offensive in the Damascus neighbourhood of Barzeh on Sunday, triggering an exodus of residents, as a rebel commander appeared in a video saying the battle to "liberate" Aleppo had begun.

"Regime forces are using helicopters to pound the Barzeh district," an activist who identified himself as Abu Omar told AFP via Skype.

"Families are trying to flee their homes, but it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood. It is surrounded, and violence on the edges is intense," he said.

Abu Omar also said the army raided the nearby Rukn al-Din neighbourhood, while "helicopters used machineguns to fire into the district's streets".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "the feared Fourth Brigade" commanded by the president's powerful younger brother, Maher, was carrying out the Barzeh attack.

"Troops have stormed the northwestern Barzeh district of Damascus with tanks and armoured personnel carriers," the group's director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said, adding that snipers were deployed on rooftops.

The rebel Free Syrian Army's (FSA) military council head, General Mustafa al-Sheikh, told AFP "a real war of attrition" was under way in Damascus.

"The regime is collapsing, the speed at which it is falling has increased. That means it will use greater violence in order to try and save itself," said Sheikh.

The Observatory also warned that a siege was under way on the outskirts of the upscale Mazzeh neighbourhood, saying "dozens of tanks" were preventing medical teams from reaching scores of injured.

Nationwide, as many as 1261 people were killed across Syria in the past seven days, three quarters of them civilians, the watchdog said.

The official SANA news agency said government forces had "cleansed" the capital's Qaboon neighbourhood of "terrorists", the regime's term for rebel fighters.

And state television aired footage reportedly from Qaboon showing dead bodies and weapons, communications equipment and money it said was captured from rebels.

It said some of the rebels killed held identity cards of Jordan and Egypt, accusing foreign countries of training and sending in insurgents.

But it denied helicopter gunships were being used inside the capital.

As battles continued in the capital, a rebel FSA commander declared that the battle to "liberate" the northern city of Aleppo had begun.

In a YouTube video, Colonel Abdel Jabbar Mohammad Oqaidi announced "the start of the operation to liberate Aleppo from the hands of Assad's gangs", while pledging that rebels would protect civilians, including the city's minorities.

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