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’Decisive’ battle rages for Aleppo amid UN wrangle

US says regime moved some chemical weapons

AFP, Aleppo
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 told AFR
Residents of neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for Aleppo also told AFP the violence was ” unprecedented".
Rebels claimed they had advanced on several fronts, particularly in the
southwest, but admitted they had failed to make any significant breakthrough.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta yesterday said the Syrian regime has moved some chemical weapons to safeguard the material as it wages war against rebel forces but the main storagesitesforits arsenal remain secure,.
Asked if rebel forces had gotten their hands on some chemical stockpiles,
Panetta said: "I don't have any specific information about the opposition and whether or not they've obtained some of this or how much they've maintained."
Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, which dates back to the 1970s, is the largest in the Middle East, but its precise scope remains unclear, according to analysts.
The regime has said it might use its
chemical weapons if attacked by outside countries, although not against its own people.
The Observatory which gave initial estimates of 60 people killed across the country yesterday.
Violence also raged in Damascus where troops attacked several rebel areas in both the north and the south of the capital, leaving three civilians dead, the Observatory said.
The UN Human Rights Council yesterday voted overwhelmingly to extend the mandate of its probe into rights violations in Syria, condemning the "increas-ingnumberofmassacres" inthecountry.
Of the council's 47 members, 41 voted in favour of the resolution allowing the Commission of Inquiry to continue its investigation, which began a year ago.
The three member states that have most resisted international intervention in Syria - - Russia, China and Cuba -- voted against the resolution.