Fighting rages on in Syria's Aleppo

29 Sep 2012, 6:47 pm   -   Source: AAP

Fighting is continuing in a strategic district of Syria's commercial hub Aleppo on the third day of an all-out rebel offensive to seize the city

Fighting is continuing in a strategic district of Syria's commercial hub Aleppo on the third day of an all-out rebel offensive to seize the city.

The focal point of combat on Saturday was Salaheddin, a rebel stronghold on the southwestern side of the city where insurgents on Friday attacked an army position, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Elsewhere in the country, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shelled localities in the southern province of Daraa, where fighting was also taking place, as well as in Deir Ezzor in the east and in Damascus.

At least six soldiers were killed in Daraa, while four civilians died in the Deir Ezzor shelling and two rebels were killed. An unspecified number of people were wounded in Damascus.

In the Aleppo province locality of Maskana, a year-old baby died and his mother and brother were wounded by shelling.

On Friday, residents of Aleppo neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for the northern city told AFP the violence was unprecedented but that the offensive had stalled.

"The sound from the fighting ... has been non-stop," said a resident of the central district of Sulamaniyeh, who identified himself as Ziad.

"Everyone is terrified. I have never heard anything like this before."

Rebels said they had advanced on several fronts, particularly in the southwest, but admitted they had failed to make any significant breakthrough.

Abu Furat, a commander of the Al-Tawhid Brigade, the most important in the city, summed up their problem.

"To win a guerrilla street war, you have to have bombs and we don't," he said.

The Britain-based Observatory said the intensity of Friday's fighting in Aleppo had been unprecedented.

Yet it was not yielding major gains for either side, said the Observatory's head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"Neither the regime nor the rebels are able to gain a decisive advantage," he said, and by Friday afternoon the intensity of fighting had abated.

Across the country, at least 117 people had been killed on Friday, 71 of them civilians, the Observatory said.

In New York, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled a total of $US45 million ($A43.28 million) in new funding for humanitarian aid and to help Syria's civilian opposition.

Some $US30 million would go towards aid, bumping up the total US funding for humanitarian relief to $US130 million, with a further $US15 million for the civilian opposition, Clinton told a meeting of the Friends of Syria.

The US government has stuck by its refusal to provide arms and military support to the rebels, fearing it would further complicate the situation on the ground.

In Washington, US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta said the Assad regime had moved some chemical weapons to safeguard the material.

"We still believe, based on what we know and what we're monitoring, that the principal sites remain secure," Panetta said.

Aid agencies have expressed concern at the growing refugee crisis.

Between one million to 1.5 million people are internally displaced, with a further 300,000 having slipped into the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, according to United Nations estimates.

Earlier this week, in his speech to the UN General Assembly, Jordan's King Abdullah II thanked the international community for helping his kingdom host Syrian refugees.

"The sombre reality is, however, that more will be needed, as the camps grow more crowded with vulnerable families and the cold desert winter approaches," the king warned.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague revealed Britain was adding STG8 million ($A12.51 million) to the STG30.5 million it had already given in humanitarian aid.

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