Syrian rebels unleashed homemade bombs and mortar rounds against government positions on Friday in a "decisive" push for victory in the war-blasted streets of Aleppo.
Syrian rebel fighters take their position during fighting with government troops in the old city of Aleppo. Photo: AFP
By Ruth Sherlock
6:47PM BST 28 Sep 2012
In a wave of attacks that began on Thursday afternoon, rebels attacked military checkpoints and bases across the city in the most vicious and coordinated offensive yet.
The violence engulfed quarters of the merchant capital that had previously escaped the unrest.
"We are calling this the 'Free Aleppo' battle," said Louay al-Mokdad, a coordinator for the rebel Free Syrian Army speaking from a town close to Aleppo.
"We gathered all of our divisions and groups in Aleppo together and started hitting on all four fronts. This is the decisive attack. It may take days or weeks for us to win, but for sure not months".
With opposition attacks against military installations become increasingly effective, the regime has move some of its chemical weapons in an effort to safeguard the arsenal, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Friday.
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The chance that some of Syria's chemical and biological weapons stockpiles might fall into the hands of one of the armed groups fighting for control of the country has been a key concern for western governments.
Mr Panetta said he believed the main stocks remained secure but could not rule out that rebel groups might have acquired some material.
Eyewitnesses in Aleppo on Friday reported seeing smoke plumes rising into the sky as the concrete walls of a military base in Salaheddin on the southwest front disintegrated under rebel mortar fire.
A second rebel unit fought for control of Minig military airport and a third front was opened in the Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maksoud.
The artillery college in Aramouseh district in Aleppo came under attack late on Thursday night with "several hundred" men from the division reportedly defecting and fighting alongside rebels to take the base, Mr Mokdad said.
"We heard soldiers on their radio calling their chiefs to ask for reinforcements. They were crying and saying 'we are all going to die,'" one of the rebels said of an attack on a military base.
Fighters from the neighbouring "liberated" Idlib province and from the city of Hama joined Aleppo's hardened fighter, creating checkpoints on the city's arterial roads to cut government supply lines, FSA coordinators told The Daily Telegraph.
In-fighting and competition for scant weaponry has fragmented the Syrian armed opposition and residents said attempts at prolonged co-ordination would fail.
"Civilians in Aleppo demonstrated against the FSA recently and told them to stop fighting each other," said Abo Hamdo, a medical coordinator for the rebels in Aleppo. "Yesterday they decided to work all together on this attack but I can assure you it will not stay more than one week!"
Assad's war machine hit back against the attacks in the city, escalating its fearsome bombing campaign across the city, with air strikes continuing through the night activists said.
As fear mixed with the desperate need to show dominance, government soldiers made a public display of summary executions, residents told The Daily Telegraph.
"Al-Ardomiyeh neighbourhood where I am from has become the place for killing arrested people," said Abo Hamdo who claimed to be a resident of the area. "I had to take my grandmother with me to go and retrieve possessions from my home. If the soldiers see a young man alone they will shoot him".
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