In an official statement quoted by a state news agency on Thursday, the Syrian army announced fresh aerial campaigns in Aleppo and asked civilians to avoid “terrorist positions”.
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Western diplomats fear a bloodbath if the government unleashes a full-blown assault to capture the besieged opposition-held zone, where 250,000 civilians are still trapped.
An offensive against rebel-held parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo is “a comprehensive one” including a ground attack, and preparatory air and artillery attacks could go on “for some time”, a Syrian military source said on Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry demanded on Wednesday that Russian Federation and the Syrian government immediately halt flights over Syrian battle zones, in what he called a last chance to salvage a collapsing ceasefire and find a way “out of the carnage”.
A rebel commander said the blasts were the fiercest the city had faced. “There is no weapon they didn’t use”, he said, speaking to Reuters from Turkey.
“With respect to the air or artillery strikes, they may continue for some time depending on the field situation and the terrorists’ losses”, the source said.
Recovering full control of Aleppo would be the most important victory of the war so far for Assad, who has sought to consolidate his grip over the western cities where the overwhelming majority of Syrians lived before fighting drove half of the nation from their homes. His group had “martyrs under the rubble” in three locations.
The planned evacuation of several hundred Syrian rebels from their last foothold in the city of Homs began on Thursday, with around 120 fighters and their families scheduled to leave by bus, witnesses and state media said.
As the inquiry works to complete its report, it has identified two Syrian Air Force helicopter squadrons and two other military units it holds responsible for chlorine gas attacks, a Western diplomat told Reuters. Before the war, the city held almost 3 million people and was Syria’s economic hub.
“The non-stop strikes last night were so violent I can’t even describe them”, said Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, spokesman for the White Helmets, a prominent Syrian group of emergency responders.
The escalation in violence in Aleppo comes amid global attempts to salvage a United States-Russia brokered ceasefire that expired on Sunday.
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Western countries pushed in the meeting for warplanes to be grounded everywhere in Syria apart from over areas held by Islamic State, but Russian Federation has refused to accept the demand.
