Rebels pull out of Aleppo’s Salaheddin

The rebel Free Syrian Army withdrew its fighters from the Salaheddin district of the embattled northern city of Aleppo yesterday as regime forces advanced, a rebel commander said.

“We have staged a tactical withdrawal from Salaheddin,” Hossam Abu Mohammed said by telephone.

The rebels were still posted in streets near the key neighbourhood, said Abu Mohammed, who commands the Dara al-Shahbaa Brigade. “We are in the Saif al-Dawla and Mashhad districts,” east of Salaheddin, he said.

The FSA withdrew under fierce bombardment by regime forces, said Abu Mohammed. “The artillery and aerial bombardments are very heavy, and they are targeting all rebel-held areas surrounding Salaheddin.”

Another FSA commander, Wassel Ayub, said: “The FSA’s brigades have staged a tactical withdrawal from Salaheddin in order to open a new front in Saif al-Dawla and Mashhad.

“We had full control of the district last night but then regime forces bombarded in an unprecedented way.”

FSA spokesman Kassem Saadeddine told AFP by Skype: “The withdrawal from Salaheddin does not mean we are leaving Aleppo. We have military plans to fight in the city but we cannot reveal them.”

In Damascus, a security source said that regime forces were advancing in the city.

“The army is advancing quickly in Salaheddin towards Seif al-Dawla,” the source said. “The next big battle, which will be very fierce, will be in the Sukkari district” of southwest Aleppo.

Mr Ayub later told AFP that the FSA was withdrawing towards Sukkari and Bustan al-Qasr.

“For the battle in Salaheddin, the army used only 10 per cent of the reinforcements sent” to Aleppo, the source said, referring to reports that regime forces had deployed 20,000 troops.

Meanwhile at least 96 people were killed in violence across Syria yesterday, a monitoring group said, adding that heavy shelling and gunfire caused most of the deaths.

Thirty-seven of those killed were civilians, 31 soldiers and 28 rebels, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 17 people were killed in Aleppo, scene of fierce battles since July 20, the Observatory said, adding that two were children. A citizen journalist was also killed in Aleppo, it added.

Nine rebels died in Aleppo’s Salaheddin district from which the Free Syrian Army withdrew yesterday, FSA commanders told AFP. The Observatory said two rebel commanders were among those killed.

Elsewhere, fierce fighting also broke out in Damascus province, where at least 15 people were killed, most of them civilians, while regime forces shelled the capital’s Zabadani district, the monitoring group said.