Syria fighting rages through Aleppo

30 Sep 2012, 7:51 pm   -   Source: AAP
Fires have swept through the medieval marketplace of Aleppo in Syria, a UNESCO world heritage site. (AAP)

Fires have swept through the medieval marketplace of Aleppo in Syria, a UNESCO world heritage site. (AAP)

Regime forces are continuing to shell the city of Aleppo as a fire engulfs medieval markets, destroying dozens of shops.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have shelled rebel-held areas across Syria as fierce clashes were reported in the second city of Aleppo where a fire tore through a medieval marketplace.

The fighting in Aleppo city was accompanied by intense overnight shelling that continued into Sunday morning, destroying houses and killing at least three people, including two civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Aleppo, Syria's most populous city, has been the main battleground for the past two months of the country's 18-month conflict, and has been gripped by fighting on an unprecedented scale in recent days.

Much of the violence has centred in and around the Old City, where a fire in the centuries-old souk marketplace destroyed many shops, according to an AFP correspondent and the observatory.

Clashes were reported elsewhere in the northern province of Aleppo, where rebel mortar fire damaged two helicopters at the Al-Nairab military airport, said the Britain-based observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground.

In Damascus province, rebels killed nine soldiers when they attacked a military checkpoint on the road linking the capital with Qatana to the southwest, the group reported.

That came after soldiers backed by aerial firepower stormed the rebel stronghold of Harasta as regime forces carried out arrest raids in the town of Zabadani.

Elsewhere, troops trying to dislodge rebels fired heavy artillery into areas of the southern province of Daraa, central region of Hama and Idlib in the country's northwest, said the Observatory.

In the northeastern province of Hasakeh, the army fired on several houses, injuring several people, as security forces conducted arrest operations in the coastal city of Banias, it added.

UN spokesman Khaled al-Masri told AFP that Mokhtar Lamani, the head of UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's office in Syria, met a commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army in a central part of the country.

Lamani held talks with Colonel Kassem Saadeddine in the town of Talbisseh, Homs province, and other members of the FSA, which is made up of army deserters and civilians who have taken up arms against the al-Assad regime.

The official also met the governor of Homs province, Ghassan Abdelaal, as well as representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent.

Separately, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari vowed to stop and search any flights from top Damascus ally Iran over its territory suspected of carrying weapons to Syria.

"We have assured US officials that the Iraqi government is determined to land (Iranian) flights and carry out random searches," Zebari told Arabic daily Al-Hayat.

Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed Baghdad to deliver on pledges to stop such flights during a meeting with Iraqi Vice-President Kudayr al-Khuzaie.

Zebari said the flights first started in March and were stopped after the Iraqis called on the Iranians to do so. By late July, however, the flights had resumed.

"They (the Iranians) said they were not carrying weapons or ammunition but pilgrims, visitors and other things," said Zebari, adding that "just to be sure, we will land these planes".

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