ALEPPO (Syria), Sept 28: Rebels unleashed an unprecedented barrage of mortar fire against troops in Aleppo after announcing a “decisive” battle for Syria’s second city, residents and a watchdog say.

Shells crashed down at a steady rate and clashes were widespread, leaving layers of dust and smoke over Aleppo, according to the residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The fighting is unprecedented and has not stopped since Thursday. The clashes used to be limited to one or two blocks of a district, but now the fighting is on several fronts,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Residents of neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for Aleppo said the violence was “unprecedented”.

“The sound from the fighting... has been non-stop,” said a resident of the central district of Sulimaniyeh, who identified himself only as Ziad. “Everyone is terrified. I have never heard anything like this before.”

Rebels claimed they had advanced on several fronts, particularly in the southwest, but admitted they had failed to make any significant breakthrough.

“On the Salaheddin front, we took one of the regular army bases,” said Abu Furat, one of the leaders of the Al-Tawhid Brigade, the most important in the city.

But he admitted that the fighters had to retreat from Salaheddin because they were outgunned. “To win a guerrilla street war, you have to have bombs and we don’t,” he said. Abu Furat said that 25 soldiers were killed in the assault, while another rebel fighter said 20 of his comrades died on the battlefield and 60 were wounded.

The Observatory which gave initial estimates of 60 people killed across the country on Friday — half of them civilians — said at least five civilians and five rebels died in Aleppo.

“We heard soldiers on their radio calling their chiefs to ask for reinforcements. They were crying and saying ‘we are all going to die,’” a rebel said.

By Friday afternoon the intensity of the fighting abated, as rebels appeared to focus their attention on other objectives, such as Omayyad Mosque in the centre of the Old City, a correspondent said.

The Observatory’s Abdel Rahman said the fighting was not yielding major gains for either side: “Neither the regime nor the rebels are able to gain a decisive advantage.”

The outgunned rebels, a rag-tag army made up of mutinous soldiers and civilians who have taken up arms to oust President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, declared an all-out assault for Aleppo on Thursday.—AFP