Syrian rebels amass as battles for Aleppo, Damascus intensify

Syrian rebels set up medical clinics in Aleppo homes as they prepared for more clashes with government forces Friday in the city that serves as the country’s commercial hub.

“On every street, we have a car to transport the wounded,” said Mustafa Abdullah, a rebel commander. “We will try to evacuate the wounded out of Aleppo if there’s no danger to them. But it will be very difficult.”

Plans are under way to send 300 more fighters to bolster forces in Aleppo, where 18 of 22 rebel brigades are located, a rebel commander said.

Battles between regime forces and rebels raged nationwide Friday, killing at least 23 people, the opposition group said.

A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it is temporarily moving some aid workers out of Syria to Beirut for security reasons.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has suspended some activities in Aleppo, said Carla Haddad, the spokeswoman.

The clashes come after at least 200 people were killed Thursday, including 48 in Aleppo and 46 in Damascus and its suburbs. The LCC said it is the first time since the uprising started that Aleppo has led in the number of deaths in a single day across Syria.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad are said to be keeping up the attack on rebel-held positions in Syria’s second city from the ground and in the air.

Fierce clashes in Aleppo yesterday killed more than 100 people, according to unconfirmed reports.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: “Aleppo has again been bombarded by Syrian fighter jets in the latest desperate effort by the Assad regime to hold on to control and there are credible reports of columns of tanks to attack the city.

The State Department said that troop movements on Aleppo along with air strikes by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft represented a “serious escalation” of the government’s efforts to crush an armed rebellion.

“This is the concern: that we will see a massacre in Aleppo and that’s what the regime appears to be lining up for,” Ms Nuland added.

“Our hearts are with the people of Aleppo, and again this is another desperate attempt by a regime that is going down to maintain control, and we are greatly concerned about what they are capable of in Aleppo.”

But Ms Nuland said the US did not foresee military intervention in the conflict without a mandate from the UN Security Council, where Russia has blocked US-led efforts to rally a stronger response.

A group of Syrian refugees came under fire Thursday night while crossing the border into Jordan, said Petra, the Jordanian state news agency. A child was killed during the incident, according to Samih Maaytah, the minister of state for media affairs.

Meanwhile, a Syrian parliamentarian from Aleppo has defected to Turkey, according to the opposition Syrian National Council. Ikhlas Badawi is the first member of the assembly elected in May to defect and the latest in a series of high-profile officials to cut ties with the regime.

The Syrian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and his wife, who was a Syrian envoy to Cyprus, also defected, the Syrian National Council said this week. The Syrian ambassador to Iraq defected this month.

Rebel militias battling regime forces in Aleppo and other hotspots are composed largely of soldiers who have defected from the Syrian military. But there are also many civilians — including students, shopkeepers, real-estate agents and members of the president’s ruling Ba’ath party — all trying to end four decades of al-Assad family rule.

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