Syrian rebels launch 'decisive offensive' for Aleppo

Rebels unleashed an unprecedented barrage of mortar fire against troops in Aleppo on Friday after announcing a "decisive" battle for Syria's second city, residents and a watchdog said. Shells crashed down at a steady rate and clashes were widespread, leaving layers of dust and smoke over Aleppo, according to the residents of the northern city and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "The fighting is unprecedented and has not stopped since Thursday. The clashes used to be limited to one or two blocks of a district, but now the fighting is on several fronts," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Residents in neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for Aleppo also told AFP the violence was "unprecedented".the fighting... has been non-stop," said a 30-year-old resident of the central district of Sulimaniyeh who only identified himself as Ziad. "Everyone is terrified. I have never heard anything like this before." The outgunned rebels, a rag-tag army made up of mutinous soldiers and civilians who have taken up arms in the 18-month battle to oust President Bashar al-Assad's regime, declared an all-out assault for Aleppo on Thursday.  "Tonight, Aleppo will be ours or we will be defeated," Abu Furat, a rebel commander, told AFP as several thousand fighters went on the offensive in the city. After his remarks an AFP correspondent counted about 16 mortars fired from 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) to 7:30 pm, with a shot about every 15 minutes in three army-held areas, including Sulimaniyeh and Sayyid Ali. "This is the first time I have seen something like this in Sayyid Ali," another resident told AFP on condition of anonymity. "One of the mortars hit a residential building and killed four people from the same family, including an old man and a young child. We tried to carry them away to bring them to the hospital but they were already dead," added the resident. "It was a horrible scene in the street. A whole crowd was trying to help. There were children and whole families because it's a civilian area." In Damascus, meanwhile, Assad's forces launched assaults on several rebel areas in the north of the capital on Friday, said the Observatory.     "Regime forces stormed the neighbourhoods of Barzeh, Jubar and Qaboon in Damascus, cutting off streets and breaking into and raiding houses. They arrested a large number of residents," it said.The Local Coordination Committees activist network said "a large number of soldiers and tanks have deployed throughout" Barzeh district and that "the sound of gunfire can be heard, and families in the neighbourhood are in panic." More than 30,000 people have been killed overall in violence since the March 2011 outbreak of the revolt against Assad, according to the Britain-based Observatory. The conflict has dominated proceedings at the UN General Assembly in New York, where UN and Arab leaders expressed concerns the country could become a "regional battleground." UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League leader Nabil al-Arabi and special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi voiced those fears as they met at UN headquarters to discuss "the appalling levels of violence," said a UN spokesman. "The three leaders warned against the risk of Syria turning into a regional battleground as violence intensifies.They were concerned that Syria will fall prey to actors whose agenda has nothing to do with Syria if violence continued," the spokesman added. There was mounting Western pressure on Russia and China to ease their opposition to UN action against the Assad regime. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the UN's inability to act. "The atrocities mount while the Security Council remains paralysed and I would urge that we try once again to find a path forward" for the council to try to end the violence," she said. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the blood of children killed in the conflict had become "a terrible stain on the reputation of this United Nations." Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country stands accused of blocking UN action, accused the West of pursuing policies that had destabilised Arab countries. "They have already created a situation of chaos in many territories and are now continuing the same policy in other countries -- including Syria," news agencies quoted him as saying. In New York, Clinton is due to host on Friday a meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group at which Syrian activists will urge world leaders to do more to help people caught up in the battle.