DAMASCUS: Syrian troops shelled several districts in Aleppo and clashed with rebels yesterday, as international peace envoy for Syria said he hoped for peace in Syria and an early return home for Syrian refugees.
The UN/Arab league envoy Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday met representatives of 1,300 Syrians at Altinozu camp in Hatay city, located on the border with their violence-racked homeland, in his first encounter since taking over the mission from his frustrated predecessor.
“We hope that their country will find peace again and that they can return to their country as early as possible,” Brahimi said at a meeting with Turkish local officials.
The veteran Algerian diplomat said he was visiting refugee camps in Syrian neighbors to brief the United Nations on the gravity of the situation for the homeless Syrians, according to a Turkish official involved in the meetings.
He was welcomed into Altinozu by large crowds of refugees, as many marched in groups and chanted slogans against the embattled Damascus regime: “Free Syria! We will fight till freedom!“
Brahimi was also briefed by Turkish officials at the local governor’s office on the conditions of the refugees and their needs, an issue raised by Ankara government as needing international support.
The Altinozu camp is one of the first refugee camps set up by Turkey soon after the unrest erupted in Syria mid-March 2011, which has already killed 20,000 according to UN figures and forced 250,000 to flee into neighboring countries.
Clashes erupted in Bustan Al-Qasr in the southwest and in nearby Izaa as both districts were shelled, residents in Syria’s second city said, also reporting fighting further south in Sukari.
Overnight, shelling killed two civilians in the rebel-held Sakhur neighborhood in the northeast, while nearby Hanano was also bombed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian forces said they had secured the flashpoint Midan district on Monday after a week of fighting, although an AFP correspondent said some parts were still unsafe for residents to return.
Pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan said the army had “cleansed” Midan, which “opens the door” to nearby neighborhoods, including Bustan Al-Basha, Suleiman Al-Halabi and Sakhur.
But the two-month-old battle for Aleppo was very fluid, with both sides claiming gains in a guerrilla war, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Outside Aleppo, two civilians were killed in shelling on the town of Al-Bab and the town of Safira was also reportedly bombed.
In Damascus, at least four soldiers and one rebel were killed, as the army tried to push into the southern districts of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Qadam and Assali, and three civilians were killed by shelling, the Observatory said.
Troops also bombed areas in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where 10 civilians were killed, the northwestern province of Idlib and the central province of Homs, where a rebel was killed in fighting, the monitor added.
The Britain-based group says more than 27,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in March 2011. The UN puts the toll at more than 20,000.
And he called for peace talks “to help the process of fundamental reforms and finding a democratic approach in Syria.”
