Syrian rebels stepped up an offensive against government troops Thursday, using a captured tank to bomb a military air base in the commercial capital Aleppo as regime forces in the capital, Damascus, unleashed new raids against them.
President Bashar al-Assad’s troops retaliated in Aleppo by pounding the strategic Salaheddine district with tank and artillery fire as rebels tried to consolidate their hold on areas they have seized.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government forces shelled a neighborhood in the city, killing seven civilians.
Fighting in Syria’s most populous city, Aleppo, continues to rage on after two weeks of clashes.