Boys are pictured through a broken windshield as they stand on a street
in Aleppo
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces seized a village southeast of
the city of Aleppo on Friday, reopening a supply line to the country's
biggest city where they have been battling rebels for eight months, a
monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the capture of Tel Shghaib
marked the last step to creating a land supply route north into Aleppo
from Hama province, crucial for Assad's forces who have lost control of
part of the main north-south highway.
Rebels say they hold most of the city itself and nearly all the rural
hinterland. But they have been unable to achieve a decisive victory and
complain that they are outgunned and vulnerable to Assad's air force,
artillery and ballistic missiles, which killed dozens of people in
Aleppo last week.
The United States pledged direct but non-lethal aid to the rebels at a
meeting in Rome on Thursday, disappointing Assad's opponents who had
hoped for more tangible military support to tip the balance of forces on
the ground, reports Reuters.
Activists reported another day of fierce fighting around Aleppo,
including the military airport at Nairab, three miles north of Tel
Shghaib which Assad's forces retook.
"It's a significant gain for the regime," the British-based
Observatory's director Rami Abdelrahman said of the army's push north,
which reversed many rebel advances when they moved south into Hama from
Aleppo province at the end of last year.
Further east, on the Iraqi frontier, government troops also managed to
wrest back control of the Yarubiyah border crossing after insurgents
seized it 24 hours earlier, he said.
The revolt against Assad, which erupted in March 2011 with mainly
peaceful protests, has escalated into civil war between mainly Sunni
Muslim forces and troops and militias loyal to Assad, from the minority
Alawite community whose faith derives from Shi'ite Islam.
The United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed, nearly a
million have fled the country and millions more have been displaced or
need aid.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that Syria, a major
Arab state on the fault lines of broader Middle East conflict, would
fall apart if the government and rebels keep fighting instead of seeking
a negotiated peace.
"This is a very small window of opportunity which we strongly support
and encourage them to use that. The opportunity may close soon," Ban
said in Geneva.
The government and opposition have both edged away in recent weeks from
their previous rejection of dialogue. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem
said on Monday the government would even talk to armed rebels and
opposition coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib has said he is ready to meet
Assad's representatives.
But Syrian officials say any serious talks must be on Syrian soil under
state control, and have shown no readiness to discuss Assad's departure
- the central demand of the opposition. For rebel fighters, who do not
answer to exiled civilian opposition leaders, Assad's exit is a
precondition for any negotiations.
"I continue to urge the Syrian parties to find their way to the
negotiating table. The horrors of the last months and years prove beyond
doubt: the military solution in Syria is leading to the dissolution of
Syria," Ban said.
He also called on the U.N. Security Council, paralyzed by a standoff
between the United States and European allies on one side, pushing for
U.N. action against Assad, and Russia and China, who have backed Assad,
to unite and address the crisis.
Moscow criticized Thursday's meeting in Rome of largely anti-Assad
Western and Arab states for taking positions and steps which "directly
encourage extremists" to topple the government by force.
But the Kremlin also said presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama
had told their foreign ministers to keep in close touch and seek new
initiatives to end Syria's civil war.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday Washington would
provide non-lethal aid including medical supplies and food to rebel
fighters, as well as $60 million to help the civilian opposition provide
services including security, education and sanitation
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