Rebels put up fierce resistance on Friday in a key district of Syria's battered Aleppo, where a regime offensive has left bodies in the streets and sparked global outrage. The government assault on the northern city has spurred a mass exodus of tens of thousands of residents from the opposition-held east and prompted fresh calls by Russia for aid corridors.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces captured northeast Aleppo this week and were focused on seizing Sheikh Saeed, a large district on the city's southeast edges. But anti-government fighters fought back strongly there overnight, rolling back recent government gains, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The regime and allied fighters... wanted to take this neighbourhood at any cost, because capturing it would allow them to target all remaining rebel-held districts," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. "But rebels put up ferocious resistance, because they knew they would be trapped if Sheikh Saeed fell," he added. Abdel Rahman said opposition forces now once again controlled at least 70 percent of the neighbourhood. Sheikh Saeed borders the last remaining sections of Aleppo still in rebel hands - a collection of densely populated residential neighbourhoods where thousands have sought refuge from advancing regime forces.
In preparation for street-by-street fighting in these districts, hundreds of fighters from Syria's elite Republican Guard and Fourth Division arrived in Aleppo on Friday, the Observatory said. The Observatory said four civilians were killed in rebel rocket fire on government-held areas, bringing to 59 the civilian toll in the city's west. More than 300 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the government offensive began on November 15, according to the Observatory.
Intermittent clashes on Friday rocked a block of residential buildings on Aleppo's eastern edges, where advancing regime forces have sought to secure the road towards the airport. AFP's correspondent in east Aleppo said ferocious clashes could be heard in the Tariq al-Bab district, where regime forces were advancing on Thursday.