Syrian troops attacked rebel positions outside Khan al-Assal

Syrian troops attacked rebel positions outside Khan al-Assal on Wednesday as they seek to recapture the northern town at the centre of rival chemical weapons accusations, a watchdog said.
Fierce fighting erupted on the outskirts of the town, which the rebels seized on Monday of last week inflicting heavy losses on the army, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The army lost 150 soldiers over two days, 50 of them summarily executed after their capture in an act condemned by the mainstream opposition leadership.
The government has been keen to recapture the town, the last to fall out of its control in the western half of Aleppo province.
The town was the scene of what both the government and the opposition say was a chemical weapons attack that killed 30 people on March 19.
The Syrian government says the rebels carried it out, and its ally Moscow says it has concrete proof.
The opposition says President Bashar al-Assad's regime was behind it and Washington has said it has seen no firm evidence of rebel responsibility. [Al jazeera]

Syrian opposition condemns soldier killings

 Jul 28, 9:02 AM EDT

 AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Syria's main exiled opposition group condemned Sunday the reported execution of scores of government soldiers by rebels in a northern Syrian village earlier this week.

The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition said in a statement that it was forming a commission of inquiry to investigate the incident in Khan al-Assal.

Syrian activists say rebels killed 150 government soldiers, some after they surrendered, on Monday and Tuesday in the village outside Aleppo, the country's largest city.

The state media said that 123 civilians and military personnel were killed in a "massacre" and others were still missing.

"Those involved in such crimes will be held accountable," the SNC statement said.

The SNC said initial reports showed "armed groups" not affiliated with the main rebel coalition had been involved. It did not elaborate, but the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra says its fighters participated in the battle.

In a separate statement, the SNC urged Egypt to "immediately release" dozens of Syrians it said were arrested last week allegedly for violating residency regulations.

It said Egyptian police arrested at least 72 Syrian men and nine boys at checkpoints on main roads in Cairo. Some had valid visas or residence permits, but were arrested "on the pretext of not having residence permits," it said.

The SNC said the arrests came days after regulations concerning Syrians' entrance into Egypt were changed. Since July 8, Syrians have been required to obtain entry visas and security clearance before they are allowed to enter Egypt.

It urged the Egyptian government not to deport Syrians, saying Cairo has an "ethical and humanitarian duty to protect the Syrian people fleeing the tyranny" back home.

At least 150 Syrian regime forces have been killed in Khan al-Assal

At least 150 Syrian regime forces have been killed in Khan al-Assal, a town in Aleppo province at the centre of an alleged chemical weapons strike, monitors said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said on Firday that at least 10 people were reported killed in regime shelling of the northwestern province of Idlib.
Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman also told the AFP nes agency at least 10 people had been killed and 50 wounded, several critically, in a rocket attack on the Bab Nairab suburb of Aleppo city.
Elsewhere in Syria, the London-based Observatory reported 10 people killed and several wounded in regime shelling of the Idlib village of Basamis. (al-jazeera)

Syria update: Aleppo.

Video footage uploaded on Youtube reportedly shows a number of regime troops killed in the western Aleppo district of Khan al-Asal after rebels seized the neighbourhood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBgoerCHzg&feature=player_embedded

Video uploaded claims to show more tanks and weapons captured by rebels from government ftroops in Aleppo, where opposition forces have reportedly made recent advances.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxrV-WUfAfs&feature=player_embedded

 Video uploaded on Youtube reportedly shows clashes between government forces and rebels at the entrance of the opposition-controlled western part of Aleppo province.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3bAOk2_5yg&feature=player_embedded
 

Syrian rebels capture key village near Aleppo city

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian rebels went on the offensive in Syria's north Monday, seizing three villages and attacking a main supply road, trying to counter government advances in recent weeks throughout the country.

Monday's clashes near the northern city of Aleppo killed more than a dozen government soldiers, activists said. The battle came a day after forces fighting for President Bashar Assad killed dozens of rebels near Damascus.

The battles showed that more than two years after it started, the Syrian civil war appears far from over, and neither side is showing signs of fatigue. According to the U.N., at least 93,000 people have been killed in the bloody conflict.

In another rebel attack Monday, two suicide bombers from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra blew up their cars in a military post and an army checkpoint in the town of Sukhna near the central city of Palmyra, killing and wounding large numbers of troops, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said warplanes bombed the town after the two blasts, causing casualties among civilians.

The fighting in the northern province of Aleppo came a day after opposition fighters sustained some of their heaviest losses in months.

Government troops killed at least 75 rebels in and around the Syrian capital on Sunday, the Observatory said.

The rebel capture of the strategic village of Khan al-Assal and two smaller villages was a rare victory in recent months.

Khan al-Assal has been a major front in the fight for Aleppo. In March, chemical weapons were allegedly used in the village, killing more than 30 people. The Syrian government and the rebels blame each other for the attack.

Opposition fighters on Monday took control of the villages on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo, though clashes were still going on near Khan al-Assal. Inside Aleppo, airstrikes targeted several rebel-held districts, said the Observatory, an anti-regime activists group that relies on reports from activists on the ground.

The opposition's Aleppo Media Center said several rebel factions are taking part in the operation that aims to cut government supply lines to the southern areas of Aleppo province. The AMC said rebels cut the road, but the Observatory said fighting was still in progress there.

Regime forces have been relying on the road to bring supplies and food to government-controlled areas in the north after rebels cut the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo, Syria's largest city, last year.

The Observatory said 14 government troops were killed Monday in the fighting in Aleppo province.

Fighting also raged in Homs, Syria's third largest city, where the regime has been trying to oust rebels from the city center in an offensive that started in late June. Monday's clashes concentrated on the rebel-held Khaldiyeh district, the Observatory said.

Rockets fired by government troops on Khaldiyeh hit the historic Khalid Ibn al-Walid mosque, damaging the tomb of a revered figure in Sunni Islam inside the mosque.

"This is the first time they hit the tomb," said Homs-based activist who identified himself only as Abu Bilal for fear of government reprisals. "Ten rockets hit the mosque today," he said.

An amateur video posted online showed heavy damage in the mosque, including a hole in one of its nine domes. The fence around the tomb was blown away and debris was scattered all over the mosque.

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

Diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis sputtered along on Monday.

In Moscow, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that they discussed a possible Russian loan. Jamil did not give details. His comments came after the Syrian pound hit a record low against the U.S. dollar, crossing the 300-pound line, compared with 47 pounds to the dollar at the start of the crisis 29 months ago.

"I hope a decision on offering Syria another loan will be made by the year's end," Jamil said.

Lavrov said the opposition, including the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, is showing no interest in peace talks to end the civil war, while the Syrian government has said it would take part.

"To our great regret, unlike the government of Syria, a significant part of the opposition, including the National Coalition, aren't showing such readiness," Lavrov said at the start of the talks. "We are persistently and continuously asking our partners, who have a serious influence with the National Coalition, to use it for positive ends and persuade it to revise its current unconstructive stance."

The opposition insists that Assad must step down as the first step in any diplomatic process. Assad insists he can run for president again next year.

----

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.r

Syria rebels seize government town in Aleppo province

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels seized the northern town of Khan al-Assal on Monday, activists said, one of the last towns in the western part of Aleppo province that was held by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
An army build-up around the province in order to retake Aleppo city has been dogged by rebel counter-attacks, although a string of government victories elsewhere in Syria has shifted the battlefield tide in Assad's favor after more than two years of bloodshed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, said army officers surrendered the town on Monday morning after rebels surrounded a southern district.
Video footage posted on the Internet by rebel groups showed army tanks withdrawing from the town. Another video showed a dead commander who rebels said led the government resistance in the town, which has been besieged for weeks.
Aleppo is part of a crescent of regions in northern Syria that have become a stronghold for rebels fighting to end four decades of rule by the Assad family.
Insurgents have been blockading government-held areas in Aleppo city, Syria's largest urban center and once its commercial hub. Aleppo has been mired in a bloody stalemate since rebels launched an offensive in the province last year.
Assad's forces have responded to the rebel advance on Khan al-Assal with a string of air raids in the area.
The Observatory says more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's insurgency, which grew out of street protests in the southern town of Deraa in March 2011. Millions of people have been displaced and ancient buildings and artefacts have been destroyed across the major Arab state.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes and Reuters TV in Beirut; Editing by Alison Williams)

fighting between Syrian rebels and regime forces continue on four fronts.

Khan al-Assal, the western town of Aleppo province, is still under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
However, the fighting between Syrian rebels and regime forces continue on four fronts.
Amateur video released by the Syrian opposition purports to show that civilians, including women, very young children and old men, allegedly free from the Syrian Army who was using them as shields from the rebels.