Shelling, air strikes pound Aleppo again as Assad urges peace talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian rebels shelled Aleppo and air strikes resumed around the city on Friday, December 23, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies said the insurgents' withdrawal from the city could pave the way towards a political solution for the country, Reuters says.

A day after the last rebels left their remaining pocket of territory in the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - a war monitor based in Britain - said about 10 shells fell in its southwestern al-Hamdaniya district.

The Observatory said six people, including two children, were killed. State television said at least three people died.

Insurgents seeking to oust Assad have shelled government controlled areas of Aleppo throughout the conflict, which began in 2011. The destruction in those parts of the city has been far less than in eastern districts rebels held until this month.

Air strikes resumed in rebel-held areas of the countryside near Aleppo on Friday for the first time since the end of the evacuation operation.

Strikes hit to the west, south-west and south of the city, areas which had not been hit for at least a week. The Britain-based Observatory had no information on casualties yet.

After months of bombardment and a final few weeks of intense air strikes and Syrian army advances on the besieged, rebel-held part of Aleppo, a local ceasefire was reached on Dec. 15 which allowed thousand of civilians and then fighters to leave.

The last left the city late on Thursday for countryside immediately to the west. The International Committee of the Red Cross said about 35,000 people, mostly civilians, had departed.

Many of those who left are living as refugees in the areas to the west and south of Aleppo, including in Idlib province where bulldozers were used to clear heavy snowfall on Friday morning, the opposition Orient television showed.