Syrian rebels start "The Northern Volcano" operation in Aleppo

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian rebels launched a major operation in the north, targeting security compounds and bases around the country's largest city of Aleppo, activists said Friday, Aug 31, according to The Associated Press.

The coordinated strikes come two days after President Bashar Assad conceded his forces have been unable to quell the more than 17-month-old rebellion against him.

Weeks of intense bombardments by the Syrian military, including airstrikes, have failed to dislodge the rebels. Instead, Assad's opponents have become more brazen as fighting rages and the civil war shows no sign of ending soon.

The rebel offensives in Aleppo, which began shortly before midnight Thursday and continued through Friday, were being led by a brigade mainly consisting of army defectors who specialize in operating artillery and tanks, said Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in the city.

The new operation, called "The Northern Volcano," will focus on coordinated attacks on specific military and intelligence targets in the city and surrounding province of the same name, Saeed said.

Saeed said the first attacks began shortly before midnight Thursday and lasted until Friday, when the "Brigade of Free Syrians" launched coordinated strikes on several security compounds in Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels killed and wounded a number of regime forces at one compound in the Aleppo neighborhood of Zahraa, but it gave no figures.

Saeed said rebels attacked four security buildings around Aleppo with tanks, rockets and machine guns.