Syrian rebels push to break Aleppo siege

Syrian rebels yesterday launched a major assault aimed at breaking a months-long siege of opposition-held districts of Aleppo, as regime ally Russia held off on renewed air strikes.

Rebel groups including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction and former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front fired waves of rockets into government-held western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians, a monitor said. More than 100 were injured including women and children.

The rebels also targeted government positions east of Aleppo city and in the coastal province of Latakia, including the Hmeimim military base used by Russian forces allied with the regime.

Moscow says it has not bombed Aleppo since October 18, but senior Russian military official Sergei Rudskoi told a briefing that the military had asked President Vladimir Putin for authorisation to resume its air strikes.

But the Kremlin said Putin did not agree saying it was inappropriate at the current moment to resume strikes on Aleppo.

The rebel assault comes more than three months into a government siege of eastern Aleppo, where more than 250,000 people live, and several weeks after the army began an operation to retake the rebel east.

RUSSIA LOSES UN RIGHTS POST

Meanwhile, Russia yesterday failed to win re-election at the UN Human Rights Council during a vote that capped a campaign by rights groups to reject Moscow over its role in the war in Syria.

The UN General Assembly elected Hungary and Croatia instead to represent eastern Europe at the rights council, in a major upset for Moscow which has been a member for all but one year since the council was set up in 2006.

More than 80 human rights and aid organizations had urged UN member-states to vote Russia off the council for its military support of President Bashar al-Assad in the war in Syria.

Russia has been accused by western powers and rights groups of indiscriminate bombings in the monthlong Syrian government operation to seize rebel-held eastern Aleppo.