- Title: SYRIA: Rebel teenager buried after clashes in Aleppo
- Date: 31st July 2012
- Summary: CHILD SHOWING SYRIAN OPPOSITION FLAG
- Embargoed: 15th August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Syrian Arab Republic
- Country: Syria
- Topics: Conflict
- Reuters ID: LVA653WAJ76ATQE417TQSEZBPSZZ
- Story Text: A teenager fighting against President Bashar al-Assad was buried in Aleppo on Tuesday (July 31) after Syrian combat aircraft and artillery pounded two areas of Syria's biggest city.
The 17-year-old rebel was shot once in the head and once in the chest, according to mourners who attended the funeral.
His father, Abdel Qadir Zeino said he wasn't sure what happened, but there had been a raid against the shabiha, or loyalist militia.
"He was a student, but he cleared his life to devote himself to the revolution. He just finished his mid-year exams during the revolution," Zeino said of his son.
The battle for Aleppo has become a crucial test for both sides in the 16-month-old rebellion. Neither Assad's forces nor the rag-tag rebels can afford to lose if they hope to prevail in the wider struggle for Syria.
Heavy gunfire echoed round the Salaheddine district in the southwest of the city, scene of some of the worst clashes, with shells raining in for most of the day.
Rebel fighters said troops loyal to Assad had been forced to retreat from the area and one rebel commander in Aleppo said his fighters' aim was to push towards the city centre, district by district, a goal he believed they could achieve "within days, not weeks".
Up to 18,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Aleppo and many frightened residents were seeking shelter in schools, mosques and public buildings, according to figures given by the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva.
Makeshift clinics in rebel-held areas struggle to deal with dozens of casualties after more than a week of fighting.
In one area of Aleppo, doctors at a makeshift hospital established by opposition forces were treating soldiers loyal to Assad who were wounded on Tuesday.
"At the end of the day these people have all been hurt and this is our duty as a doctor. The regime does not understand that our mission is humanitarian. We do not rely on killing or terrorism but humanitarianism."
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 100 people, 73 of them civilians, were killed in Syria on Monday (July 30). It said five rebel fighters died during clashes with Syrian forces in Salaheddine. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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