Syria rebels battle to break Aleppo siege

Fresh fighting shook Aleppo yesterday as rebels battled to break a siege of the city by the Syrian regime, accused by Washington of using starvation as a weapon of war.

Opposition fighters have unleashed a barrage of rockets on the government-held western side of the divided city as part of a major offensive announced Friday to reopen supply lines.

More than 250,000 people live in the bombed-out eastern parts of Aleppo, encircled by government troops and allied militia since July without access to food or humanitarian aid.

"In just a few days, we will open the way for our besieged brothers," rebel commander Abu Mustafa told AFP yesterday from the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad, on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo.

He said advancing rebels would work their way east through a sprawling military complex then to the district of Al-Hamdaniyeh to break through government lines.

Syrian state news agency SANA said rockets fired by opposition groupswounded six people including a child in two regime-held districts.

Rebel bombardment has killed at least 21 civilians since Friday, including two children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 1,500 rebels from the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib to the west are attacking regime-controlled districts of the city along a front stretching for 15 kilometres (nine miles), it said.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported Russian raids hit Aleppo's western front lines, but said a halt to Moscow's aerial bombing of the city itself was holding.