Syrian army says takes Aleppo area,
rebels say battle continues
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[November 08, 2016]
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army
said it had taken a strategic district of Aleppo on Tuesday, in what
would be the most important advance in the divided city by Damascus and
its allies in weeks, but rebels said the battle was not over.
The 1070 Apartments district is located on the southwestern outskirts of
Aleppo and lies alongside the government's corridor into the parts of
the city that it controls.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that reports
on the war, said government forces and their allies had seized full
control of the district, calling it the most significant gain by the
government in Aleppo since September.
A Syrian military source said the army and allied forces were in
complete control of the area and surrounding hills. They have made
repeated efforts to oust rebels from the 1070 Apartments area since the
summer.
A military media unit run by the Damascus-allied Hezbollah carried a
similar report. Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group, is fighting
in support of Damascus.
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But officials in two rebel groups fighting in Aleppo said the battle was
still raging. Yasser Alyousef from the political office of the Nour
al-Din al-Zinki group said rebels had recovered positions they had lost
on Monday.
"There is still a battle and the result has absolutely not been
decided," added the second official, Zakaria Malahifji, head of the
political office of the Fastaqim rebel group.
Syrian government forces backed by allied militias and Russian air power
launched a major assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo in September,
after besieging the area that the United Nations says is home to 275,000
people.
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![](../images/110816pics/news_s29.jpg)
People walk past rubble of damaged buildings in a rebel-held
besieged area in Aleppo, Syria November 6, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman
Ismail
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Insurgents launched a counter attack aimed at breaking the siege on
Oct. 29, targeting government-held western districts of Aleppo in an
offensive that included jihadist groups and insurgents fighting
under the Free Syrian Army banner.
But their progress slowed after early gains.
Russia says its air force has been observing a moratorium on air
strikes on the rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo since Oct. 18.
The Observatory and emergency workers in eastern Aleppo said heavy
air strikes had killed hundreds of people, and hit hospitals and
other civilian facilities prior to that.
Insurgent shelling of government-held western Aleppo has meanwhile
killed dozens of people, the United Nations said last week in an
update on the humanitarian situation in the city.
(Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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