Heavy shellfire forces Syrian rebels out of key Aleppo district

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rebels retreated from the key Aleppo district of Salaheddin under a deadly rain of shellfire Thursday, August 9 as a veteran Algerian diplomat was set to be named the new international envoy to Syria, AFP reports.

"We have staged a tactical withdrawal from Salaheddin. The district is completely empty of rebel fighters. Regime forces are now advancing into Salaheddin," said Hossam Abu Mohammed, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander, with the battle for Syria's commercial capital raging into a second day.

"The fighters are withdrawing to (nearby) Sukari district, where they are preparing a counter-attack," he said.

Abu Mohammed cited heavy shelling and the army's use of thermobaric bombs, which throw out a wall of fire to incinerate targets in enclosed spaces.

"A large number of civilians were killed, as were some 40 rebels," he said. "Forty buildings have been flattened."

State television said: "Our special forces have cleansed Salaheddin district of terrorists."

But Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that fighters remained in the district, ready to "fight to the death."

Wassel Ayub, who commands the Nur al-Haq Brigade, said the FSA had withdrawn "to open a new front in Saif al-Dawla and Mashhad."

FSA spokesman Kassem Saadeddine, speaking by Skype, said the withdrawal "does not mean we are leaving Aleppo. We have military plans to fight in the city, but we cannot reveal them."

In Damascus, a security source said regime forces were "advancing quickly" in Salaheddin towards Saif al-Dawla.