Syrian opposition denies losing control of Aleppo

Ambulances in Aleppo ferry the wounded to Hospitals on August 7 Syrian opposition groups have denied reports that they lost control of a major part of Aleppo, Syria's largest city currently being fought over violently between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The opposition Syrian Revolution General Commission and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Wednesday denied a report by Reuters saying that rebels have abandoned a frontline district in the northern city of Aleppo.
Rebels were quoted by a Reuters reporter as saying that its fighters have left Salah al-Din district in Aleppo.
The Syrian army on Wednesday launched a ground assault on Aleppo, a Syrian security official told AFP.
“The army is advancing from west to east to cut Salah al-Din in half horizontally,” the official said on condition of anonymity, referring to the key rebel stronghold in the city.
“It will not take a long time to control the district, even if there are some pockets of resistance remaining,” the source added.
Fighting in Aleppo spread to new areas on Tuesday as rebels tried to expand their hold inside Aleppo despite two weeks of withering counterattacks by President Bashar al-Assad’s troops, according to activists.
Heavily armed government troops have been steadily shelling rebel-controlled parts of the city, particularly Salah al-Din and other districts on the southwestern edge of Aleppo, for more than two weeks as the two sides fight for control over the strategic city.

Meanwhile the King of Jordan Abdul II has spoke of his fear that even if the rebels win the battle for Aleppo, forces Loyal to Assad may retreat to a defensive line encompassing the Alawite region where there is still strong support for the President. In an interview with CBS he states " I have a feeling that if he can't rule greater Syria then maybe an Alawi enclave is plan B." Jordan also formally confirmed the defection of the Syrian Prime Minister on Thursday while the FSA announced that the The chief of protocol at Syria's presidential palace also defected Thursday morning and is safe and in hiding in Syria.

Syrian tanks and other armoured vehicles entered the city Wednesday in an attempt to create an opening for infantry to enter. While tanks had previously entered the city, they had not remained there for as long as during this Battle. The Independent reports that five tanks were positioned on the corners of Salaheddine square as rebels attempted to dissapate down alleys to avoid the heavy armour.

The Syrian army shelled several districts of Aleppo before dawn on Wednesday, killing 12 people in the northern city while another civilian died elsewhere in the province, a monitor said.
Among the dead were a woman and her two children, killed when a shell landed on their house in Al-Mashatiyah neighbourhood, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The neighbourhoods of Qatarji, Tariq al-Bab and Shaar also came under heavy shelling, the Britain-based watchdog said.
The Syrian Revolution General Council, a network of activists on the ground, reported overnight shelling in the neighbourhoods of Al-Kalassa, Shaar, Sukari and Tariq al-Bab as well as heavy artillery fire aimed at the Bustan al-Qasr and Fardoss districts of Aleppo.
In Furqan district, it said security forces were deployed as a power outage struck in the area.
According to the Observatory, there were 225 people killed on Tuesday, one of the highest tolls in the 17-month revolt. Among the victims were 129 civilians, 50 rebels and 46 soldiers.
It is impossible to verify these figures and the United Nations has stopped maintaining an independent toll.
Amnesty International also expressed alarm about the plight of civilians around Aleppo, saying satellite images show intensifying use of heavy weapons near residential areas of Syria’s second largest city.
The human rights watchdog warned forces loyal to Assad and rebels that attacks on civilians would be documented and the culprits held accountable.
“Amnesty International is sending a clear message to both sides in the fighting: Any attacks against civilians will be clearly documented so that those responsible can be held accountable,” Amnesty’s Christoph Koettl said in a statement.
The London-based rights group said images from Anadan, a small town near Aleppo, revealed more than 600 probable artillery impact craters from the fierce fighting over the northwestern city.
It said that an image from July 31 shows what seems to be artillery impact craters next to what appears to be a residential housing complex in Anadan.
Amnesty said it is concerned that the deployment of heavy weaponry in residential areas will lead to further human rights abuses and grave breaches of international law.
“The Syrian military and the opposition fighters must both adhere to international humanitarian law, which strictly forbids the use of tactics and weapons that fail to distinguish between military and civilian targets,” Koettl said.
A senior security official said on Sunday that the army had completed the buildup in Aleppo of some 20,000 troops in readiness for a decisive showdown in the battle underway since July 20.
The head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, voiced concern for civilians trapped in the fighting in the city of some 2.7 million people.
Rebels say they control around half of the city.
President Bashar al-Assad had vowed on Tuesday to crush the 17-month rebellion against his regime and to cleanse Syria of "terrorists", as his troops engaged rebels in key battleground city Aleppo.
"The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite," he was quoted by state news agency SANA as telling visiting senior Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili.
Assad said his country was "able to defeat foreign plans targeting the resistance axis and Syria's role in it".
In Aleppo, clashes rocked several central areas of the city while the army also shelled rebel-held areas in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The fighting in and around Aleppo killed at least 20 people, the watchdog said, adding that the nationwide toll was 122.
Aleppo has been bracing for a major ground offensive after a senior security official said the army had completed a buildup of some 20,000 troops.
Near Homs in central Syria, opposition gunmen attacked an electricity company housing compound, killing 16 people, including Alawites, Christians and Sunnis, the Observatory said.
And rebels attacked an oil field in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, triggering clashes in which four rebels and six soldiers were killed, it added.
Defected ex-premier Riad Hijab was in neighbouring Jordan firming up his plans after his defection to the opposition, which Washington said showed the regime was crumbling.
A general of the Syrian regime's army defected to Turkey Tuesday and crossed the Turkish border along with 532 Syrian refugees, said the Anatolia news agency.
Diplomatic sources at the UN meanwhile said Tuesday the UN Security Council would hold a ministerial meeting on the conflict on August 30.
The meeting has been called by France as president of the Security Council for August, sources from several countries said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has yet been made.
Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not yet sure that Russia and China, which have vetoed three council resolutions on Syria, would attend at ministerial level.
 On the humanitarian front, more than 22,000 Iraqis have fled Syria in less than three weeks, while 12,600 Syrians have done so since the beginning of the year, the UNHCR said.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said Syrians urgently need life-saving medicines, and the World Food Programme said 1.5 million people in rural areas would need food aid in the next three to six months.
And Britain announced a grant of £10 million ($15.6 million, 12.6 million euros) to aid thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.