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Syria army mounts assault

Massacre fear grows in Aleppo as France urges immediate UN intervention

Afp, Aleppo
The Syrian army launched a massive assault on rebels in Aleppo yesterday amid growing world concern about the risks of reprisals against civilians in the country’s commercial capital.
Troops backed by tanks and helicopter gun ships, which had been
massing for two days, moved on southwestern districts of Aleppo, where rebels concentrated their forces when they seized much of the northern city on July 20.
Artillery pounded Salaheddin and other neighbourhoods from 8:00am as ground troops advanced, an AFP correspondent reported.
Trapped civilians crowded into basements, seeking refuge from the bombardment.
Meanwhile, condemning the assault, French President Francois Hollande yesterday urged the UN Security Council to rapidly intervene in the Syria conflict to pre-empt an FROM PAGE 1 all-out civil war.
"The role of the countries of the Security Council is to intervene as quickly as possible," he said, specifically addressing Damascus allies Russia and China and warning that failure to do so would mean "chaos and civil war."
At least 29 people were killed in the assault so far, die Syrian Observatory for I luman Rights said, contributing to a figure of at least 90 people nationwide.
The watchdog said more than 20,000 people, the majority civilians, have now died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in March 2011.
"The fiercest clashes of the uprising are taking place in several neighbourhoods," die Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said.
While the rebels’ small arms and rocket-propelled grenades are lilde match for the heavy armour of Assad's forces, Abdel Rahman said "the army has not made any progress since the morning, and even lost five tanks."
An AFP correspondent in Aleppo said rebels echoed the Observatory claim dial loyalists had not advanced, but put die number of tanks lost at 10.
An activist calling himself Amer said "diere are thousands of people in the streets fleeing the bombardment. They're being terrorised by helicopter gunships living at low altitude. There's a large number of civilians who have taken refuge in public parks."
Official news agency SANA reported fighting in the Furqan district where "a terrorist group was terrorising residents."
Pro-government daily Al-Watan had warned the "mother of all battles" loomed in Aleppo as the government moved to reassert its authority after recapturing rebel-held districts of Damascus earlier in the week.
Both sides acknowledged casualties were likely to be high.
Russia warned a "tragedy" was looming but said it was unrealistic to expect die government would stand by when rebels were occupying major cities.
Meanwhile, foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Moscow would not cooperate with a new round of EU sanctions against Syria.
"We will not consider requests and give consent to the search of ships sailing under the Russian flag, nor to the use of other restrictive
measures," he said.
Turkey, which has given refuge to defecting army officers who have formed the kernel of the FSA, warned it could "not remain an observer" as violence raged across its southern border.
"We must do what we can together in the United Nations Security Council, and also in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, to make sure that we can make some important progress in trying to avert this appalling situation," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.