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Syria rebels 'in push to break Aleppo siege' | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Rebels in Syria have announced a big offensive aimed at breaking the government siege of east Aleppo. | |
A UK-based monitoring group said the rebels had fired "hundreds" of missiles into western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians. | |
They are also reported to have targeted al-Nayrab military airport to the east. | They are also reported to have targeted al-Nayrab military airport to the east. |
About 275,000 people have been besieged in the east by pro-government forces for several months. | |
Syria and its ally Russia have recently intensified air strikes on the east. | Syria and its ally Russia have recently intensified air strikes on the east. |
The attacks are so far coming from rebels outside Aleppo but it is understood that rebels inside the city will join the offensive. | |
"All the revolutionary factions, without exception, are participating in the battle," the military spokesman for the Fastaqim faction inside the city said, AP news agency reports. | |
Rebels fired Grad missiles at al-Nayrab, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group said. Up to 115 people were killed or wounded, it added. | |
They also detonated two car bombs - one a digger driven by a suicide bomber from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front - against government positions to the south-west of the city. | |
The area around the Hmeimim air base near the coastal city of Latakia - the main airport used by the Russian air force - was also reportedly targeted, the SOHR said. | |
It is the rebels' second attempt to break the siege. In August they temporarily opened a corridor between the east and west after the government entirely encircled them for the first time in July. | |
The city, previously Syria's economic hub, has been divided between the two sides since 2012. | |
Almost 500 people have been killed and 2,000 injured since government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, intensified an assault on the east of the city a month ago. | |
UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein has described the city as a "slaughterhouse". |