- Title: SYRIA: Fighting in Aleppo as Syrian armed forces planes hover overhead
- Date: 17th October 2012
- Summary: AL BUSTAN AL-BASHA, ALEPPO, SYRIA (OCTOBER 17, 2012) (REUTERS) FREE SYRIAN ARMY (FSA) FIGHTERS IN STREET DESTROYED BUILDINGS RUBBLE AND DESTROYED BUILDINGS/ AUDIO OF GUNFIRE FREE SYRIAN FIGHTERS GROUPED IN STREET FULL OF RUBBLE/ AUDIO OF SHOOTING FSA REBEL SHOOTING IN THE STREET VARIOUS OF FSA REBEL IN MILITARY FATIGUES SHOOTING IN STREET FSA REBEL RELOADING VIEW OF BULL
- Embargoed: 1st November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Syrian Arab Republic
- Country: Syria
- Topics: Conflict
- Reuters ID: LVA7G7XKBJJ6RE73N78ZXZE7O1W2
- Story Text: Rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) say they are fighting to protect civilians as they comb the streets of Aleppo on Wednesday (October 17), looking for Syrian government forces.
France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday that the rebels have acquired heavy weapons but these fighters were still lightly armed.
Fabius, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics, who spoke ahead of a closed door conference in Paris with civilian members of rebel councils that run areas seized from central government control, said because they were so heavily armed, the Syrian government planes had been forced to bomb rebel-held zones indiscriminately from high altitude.
Fabius said Syrian government forces were also indiscriminately dropping cluster bombs, a charge levelled by Human Rights Watch on Sunday but denied by Damascus.
Cluster bombs explode in the air, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets over an area the size of a sports field. Most nations have banned their use under a convention that became international law in 2010, but which Syria has not signed.
Outgunned rebels have struggled to turn the tide of the 19-month conflict against government forces equipped with tanks, jets and helicopter gunships.
Western powers have been reluctant to arm the insurgents because they lack a coherent leadership and because of fears that weapons could end up in the hands of Islamist militants who are increasingly evident in the conflict.
"Snipers. To get Assad's forces, the snipers are going on top of the buildings and fire at civilians. We are protecting the civilians" said one FSA sniper.
Another FSA rebel took Reuters to a retirement home in Bustan al-Basha. The Syrian news agency SANA last month said the Syrian government forces had wiped out an undetermined number of rebels there as well as at a roundabout.
One rebel fighter accused the government of propaganda denying any rebels had been killed there.
"We're in the Bustan Al-Basha area, in front of retiring home. This is the place where Syrian state television said they killed 70 terrorists and burnt 3 buses. All this talk is not true," said the FSA rebel.
One of the commanders said many of their fighters came from the same streets they were fighting to take control of and that their main priority was to protect civilians seen running down the road to avoid sniper fire.
Thirty thousand people have been killed in the uprising, which began with peaceful demonstrations and now pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against an Alawite president.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 90 people had been killed in Syria by late afternoon on Wednesday, after 150 people died the day before.
The death toll has topped 1,000 a week for at least two months as divided world powers have condemned the bloodshed in what has become a largely stalemated conflict, but failed to agree on a political solution.
"They claim we are terrorists. We are the sons of this country. Some of our men, these fighters here, are from these buildings around you. When we see our families being shelled by planes and artillery, then there is nothing else we can do. This regime is not taking care of it's people. They are killing... now , we are under occupation, we have no choice but to protect ourselves, our families and our children," said the commander.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, has proposed that both President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebel fighters seeking his overthrow hold fire during the Islamic feast holiday of Eid al-Adha that starts next week. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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