REUTERS: Syrian helicopter gunships and artillery pounded two key areas of Aleppo on Tuesday, extending the army’s campaign to control the country’s biggest city, but rebel fighters said troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had been forced to retreat.
Heavy gunfire sounded from the Salaheddine district in the southwest of the city, where rebels denied they had been driven out by the army. Attack helicopters turned their machineguns on eastern districts for the first time in the latest fighting.
The army said two days ago it had taken Salaheddine, but Syrian state television said on Tuesday government forces were now pursuing the remnants of a group of “terrorists” there, in an indication that the army did not after all have full control of the area.
A rebel commander in Aleppo said his fighters’ aim was to push towards the city centre, district by district, a goal he believed they could achieve “within days, not weeks”… (more)
