“The rebels’ violent shelling comes as a response to the advance of regime forces towards the Castello road”, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
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The road is the only insurgent supply route into the east of the city, where an estimated 5,000 rebels are dug in. Their advances brought the strategically important road – Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and its commercial center – within closer firing range and trapped between 250,000 and 300,000 people in the process. The ceasefire does not apply to the Daesh and al-Nusra Front terrorist groups. Amid the heavy fighting, government forces were able to effective cut off the Castello road, raising fears of a new humanitarian crisis.
People inspect the damage at a site after it was hit by shelling carried out by rebels at Syrian gov …
The Syrian army has unilaterally extended a nationwide ceasefire for three days, while residents of besieged Aleppo face food and fuel shortages after government forces cut off a primary supply route. Syrian journalist Ahmad Primo said one of the vehicle bombs was driven by a militant from Ahrar al-Sham, another ultraconservative jihadist group fighting the government.
As well as the fighting in Aleppo, the Observatory said at least four civilians were killed in regime air strikes overnight on the rebel-held town of Douma, east of Damascus.
As the countrywide ceasefire expired Friday, the Syrian military announced on Saturday that it would extend the cessation of hostilities for an extra 72 hours until midnight on July 12.
On Friday night, foreign-backed Takfiri militants launched several mortar attacks against two residential areas in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, killing over two dozen people and wounding more than 100 others.
Assad is supported by Moscow, which launched an air campaign in Syria in September, Iranian troops and Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah fighters.
Russian Federation sent warplanes to Syria past year to support President Bashar al-Assad against rebels seeking to end his rule, and have supported Syrian government forces in a separate fight against Islamic State militants further east.
“We very much welcome the Syrian Army declaration of the 72-hour period of quiet in celebration of and in honour of Eid”, Kerry said Wednesday.
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The regime also shelled the road later in the day, it said.
