BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels including jihadists counter-attacked the army and its allies on Friday aiming to break a weeks-long siege on eastern Aleppo, insurgents said.

The assault, employing heavy shelling and suicide car bombs, was mainly focused on the city’s western edge by rebels based in the countryside outside Aleppo. It included Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a former affiliate of al Qaeda previously known as the Nusra Front, and groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) banner.

The offensive prompted the Russian Defence Ministry to ask President Vladimir Putin for permission to resume air strikes against militants in rebel-held eastern Aleppo after 10 days in which the army said it had not struck, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported. But Putin said it was unnecessary to resume strikes yet, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said more than 15 civilians had been killed and 100 wounded by rebel shelling of government-held western Aleppo. State media reported that seven civilians were killed.

There were conflicting accounts of advances in areas on the city’s outskirts.

Aleppo, Syria’s biggest pre-war city, has become the main theatre of conflict between President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran, Russia and Shi’ite militias, and Sunni rebels including some supported by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.

The city has been divided for years between the government-held western sector and rebel-held east, which the army and its allies put under siege this summer and where they launched a new offensive in September that medics say has killed hundreds.

Photographs showed insurgents approaching Aleppo in tanks, armoured vehicles, bulldozers, make-shift mine sweepers, pick-up trucks and on motorcycles, and showed a large column of smoke rising in the distance after an explosion.

Fateh al-Sham said in a statement that rebels had gained control over Dahiyet al-Assad, a suburb with a low-rise residential district of about a square kilometre on the southwest corner of the city.

Zakaria Malahifji, an official with Fastaqim, a nationalist rebel group in the offensive, said insurgents had captured the residential area but not the whole of Dahiyet al-Assad. The Observatory said rebels had gained most of the suburb.

But a Syrian military source said earlier that the army and its allies had thwarted what he called “an extensive attack” on south and west Aleppo. A state television station reported that the army had destroyed four car bombs.

REBEL BOMBARDMENT

Abu Anas al-Shami, a member of the Fateh al-Sham media office, told Reuters from Syria the group had carried out two “martyrdom operations”, after which its fighters had gone in and had been able to “liberate a number of important areas”. A third such attack had been carried out by another Islamist group.

A tank for rebel fighters drives in Dahiyat al-Assad west Aleppo city, Syria October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

A senior official in the Levant Front, an FSA group, said: “There is a general call-up for anyone who can bear arms.”

“The preparatory shelling started this morning,” he added.

Heavy rebel bombardment, with more than 150 rockets and shells, struck southwestern districts, the Observatory said.

Fateh al-Sham played a big part in a rebel attack in July that managed to break the government siege on eastern Aleppo for several weeks before it was reimposed.

Abu Youssef al-Mouhajir, an official from the powerful Ahrar al-Sham Islamist group, said the extent of cooperation between the different rebel factions was unusual, and that the largest axis of attack was on the western edge of the city.

“This long axis disperses the enemy and it provides us with good cover in the sense that the enemy’s attacks are not focused,” he said.

JIHADISTS

The powerful role played by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, listed by many countries as a terrorist group, has complicated Western policy towards supporting the anti-Assad opposition.

The United States has prevented more powerful weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles from being supplied to rebels partly out of fear they could end up in jihadist hands.

The Syrian military source said Friday’s attack had been launched in coordination with Islamic State, a group against which all the other rebels, including Fateh al-Sham, have fought.

Islamic State fighters did clash with the Syrian army on Friday at a government-held airbase 37km (23 miles) east of Aleppo, next to territory the jihadist group already controls, the Observatory reported.

Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s pre-war population, dragged in regional and global powers and caused a refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe.

Mouhajir, the Ahrar al-Sham official, said cloudy weather was helping to reduce the aerial advantage enjoyed by the Syrian military and its Russian allies. Inside Aleppo, tyres were also burnt to create a smokescreen against air strikes.

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Grad rockets were launched at Aleppo’s Nairab air base before the assault began said Malahifji of the Fastaqim rebel group, adding that it was going to be “a big battle”.

The Observatory also said that Grad surface-to-surface rockets had struck locations around the Hmeimim air base, near Latakia.</s>Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

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Aleppo – Syrian Islamist rebels, led by the Army of Conquest, launched an offensive on Friday to break the siege on eastern Aleppo. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), an al-Qaeda splinter group, initiated the campaign by attacking several regime-held districts in western Aleppo.

Abu Saeed al-Halabi, a Dutch member of JFS, told ARA News that the new offensive aims to “free the thousands of Muslims besieged in the eastern part of Aleppo.”

Al-Halabi credited the Army of Conquest, also known as Jaish al-Fatah, with laying the groundwork for the offensive, marshaling Syria’s often disparate Islamists. “[They,] JFS and other factions prepared this assault in great detail and synchronized their forces in an unprecedented manner,” he told ARA News.

Al-Halabi added that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham would commit the bulk of its jihadists to this one operation “[We] will commit most of our resources and inghimasi [suicide] fighters,” he said.

“Both [Sunni] mujahidin and Shia militias have gathered thousands of their fighters for a battle which could decide the outcome of this conflict,” al-Halabi stated. “[Our triumph] will likely secure the remaining part of Aleppo city from Shia forces. This will bury the myth of a political solution in Syria.”

Speaking for his fellow Jihadists, al-Halabi, said that all of the recent battles in Syria, Iraq and Yemen were linked. “These battles should be seen in the light of the US-Russian-Iranian alliance’s plan to strip the Sunnis from power in the Middle East,” he said.

Jabhat al-Nusra announced in July that it had broken its ties to al-Qaeda and that it had changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. However, Russia and the US view these changes as cosmetic and have continued to target the group.

According to al-Halabi, the Aleppo offensive has great importance “as it could tip Syria’s power balance.” The JFS member declared that “this could be the mother of all battles.”

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Join our Weekly Newsletter</s>Fierce fighting broke out around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday as rebels announced a large-scale offensive to break the government’s nearly two-month siege of opposition-held areas.

A reporter inside the city on the pro-government Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV channel reported attacks on “all sides” of the city, “from the furthest points north to furthest south”.

Sounds of heavy gunfire, mortar fire, and explosions were heard in the background of his broadcast. Dark smoke was seen rising above the city on the overcast morning. Presumed government or Russian jets were also heard flying overhead.

Rebel factions in and around Aleppo have been preparing to launch a counteroffensive to try and break the government’s suffocating siege off Aleppo’s eastern-held neighbourhoods for several weeks.

The area has been subjected to a ferocious campaign of aerial attacks by Russian and Syrian government warplanes, and hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks according to opposition activists and trapped residents.

The Syrian army said in a statement that troops repelled rebel attacks on all fronts in Aleppo and inflicted osses on the attackers.

The army said the rebel attack concentrated on the Assad suburb west of Aleppo amid intense shelling with artillery and Russian-made Grad rockets.

“The Syrian army and its allies are in control on the ground and armed groups were not able to change the map,” the army statement said. “Fighting is still ongoing but the intensity dropped.”

This is the second attempt by rebels to break the government’s siege. They opened a corridor to the east for the month of August after pro-government forces first applied a blockade in July, but government forces were able to reinstate the siege in early September.

Rebels launched the offensive yesterday as the Russian, Syrian, and Iranian foreign ministers met in Moscow. Iran and Russia are Assad’s main backers and have committed air power, ground forces, and military advisers to the war.

Aleppo is the focal point of the six-year war. President Bashar al-Assad has said he is determined to retake the country’s largest city and former commercial capital. The government has maintained a siege on the rebel-held eastern quarters since September. The UN estimates 275,000 people are trapped inside with dwindling supplies of food and medicine.

Monday’s attack began with rebels detonating three vehicle-borne explosives against government positions to the city’s south-west and attacking with hundreds of rockets, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said at least one of the vehicles was driven by a suicide bomber for the al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Sham Front, which also announced the offensive.

Fatah-al-Sham claimed credit for two car bombs, saying in a statement that a “martyrdom-seeking fighter” drove a tank laden with explosives and parked it, before it was detonated and the fighter “returned to his brothers”.

It said a suicide car bomb attack was carried out to the west of Aleppo.

The Islamic Front rebel coalition also announced on Twitter that the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group targeted a military airport to the east of the city with Grad rockets and destroyed a government position to the west of the city.

Ammar Sakkar, the military spokesman for the powerful Fastaqim faction inside the city, said “all the revolutionary factions, without exception, are participating in the battle.”

He said hundreds of advance fighters were participating in the attack, adding that the total number of participants was “much higher.”</s>BEIRUT — Syrian rebels launched a broad offensive for Aleppo Friday as the Russian, Syrian, and Iranian foreign ministers vowed to intensify their fight against terrorism in the country.

The battlefield allies met in Moscow as the Syrian government is looking to cement its authority over the divided northern city and the contested suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

Fighting for Aleppo appeared to have calmed by the afternoon after rebels assaulted the city's government-controlled western side with three vehicle bombs and at least 150 rockets in the morning. The Syrian military said the rockets were Russian-made Grad missiles.

At least 15 civilians were killed in the volley, according to pro-government TV stations. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also said that 15 civilians were killed, and over 100 injured.

A reporter inside the city for the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV channel had reported attacks on "all sides" of the city, "from the furthest points north to the furthest south."

Sounds of heavy gunfire, mortar fire, and explosions were heard in the background of his broadcast, as dark smoke was seen rising above the city on the overcast morning. Presumed government or Russian jets were also heard flying overhead.

An afternoon broadcast from the city on Lebanon-based Al-Manar TV depicted a quieter scene, though sporadic gunfire and missile attacks were heard in the background.

Rebels said they seized a factory and pushed into government-held neighborhoods in southwestern Aleppo, but the Syrian military said through SANA that it had repelled the offensive from all fronts, with support from allied militias.

"The Syrian army and its allies are in control on the ground and armed groups were not able to change the map," the military statement said. "Fighting is still ongoing but the intensity has dropped."

This is the second attempt by rebels to break the government's siege of Aleppo's opposition-held eastern districts, where the U.N. estimates 275,000 people are trapped. U.N. Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura has estimated 8,000 of them are rebel fighters, and no more than 900 of them affiliated with the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

The area has been subjected to a ferocious campaign of aerial attacks by Russian and Syrian government warplanes, and hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks, according to opposition activists and trapped residents.

Rebels opened a corridor to the east for the month of August after pro-government forces first applied a blockade in July, but they were not able to hold it as the government and its Russian ally pounded the gap with artillery and airstrikes. Pro-government forces reapplied the siege in early September.

The setback caused the rebels to pursue a different tack, and they are trying to draw government forces into street fighting in the densely-inhabited western part of the city, according to rebel spokesman Ammar Sakkar. They are hoping this will dissuade the government and Russian air force from using heavy weapons and aerial munitions.

"We want to force the regime into street battles, in addition to opening several fronts," said Fastaqim spokesman Ammar Sakkar. "It may go beyond lifting the siege to liberating the whole city."

Friday's attack began with rebels detonating three vehicle-borne explosives against government positions to the city's southwest and attacking with hundreds of rockets, the Observatory said. It said at least one of the vehicles was driven by a suicide bomber for Fatah al-Sham, which also announced the offensive.

Fatah al-Sham claimed credit for two car bombs, saying in a statement that a "martyrdom-seeking fighter" drove a tank laden with explosives and parked it, before it was detonated and the fighter "returned to his brothers."

The Islamic Front rebel coalition also announced on Twitter that the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group targeted a military airport to the east of the city with Grad rockets and destroyed a government position to the west of the city.

Sakkar, said "all the revolutionary factions, without exception, are participating in the battle." He said hundreds of fighters were participating in the attack, adding that the total number of participants was "much higher."

The Syrian army depends on battlefield assistance from Lebanese and Iraqi militias, as well as Russian air power and Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard forces.

The Russian military says it has asked President Vladimir Putin to allow the resumption of airstrikes in Syria on the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo due to the fresh rebel offensive there.

Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said the opposition fighters took advantage of a 10-day moratorium on military flights over the city to attempt to break the siege of the eastern rebel-held part of the city. He says all attacks have been repelled, but 43 civilians have been killed and 96 wounded in the rebel shelling.

The Syrian government has labeled the country's armed opposition "terrorists." Syria has sunk ever deeper into a costly civil war since security forces cracked down brutally on popular demonstrations in 2011.

Near the capital Damascus, meanwhile, the Syrian army captured an army missile base that was held by rebels, as well as a castle. Syrian troops have been on the offensive near Damascus for weeks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a news conference with his Syrian and Iranian counterparts the intensified fight would come in parallel with efforts to improve humanitarian aid access.

But U.N. official Jan Egeland said Thursday it was the Syrian government that had denied humanitarian access to eastern Aleppo as part of a monthly U.N. plan to access 25 besieged and remote areas in Syria.

Western nations accuse Russia of deliberately attacking a U.N.-backed aid convoy in September in rebel-held territory, killing over a dozen humanitarian workers and destroying hundreds of tons of cargo.

Aleppo is the focal point of the war. President Bashar Assad has said he is determined to retake the country's largest city and former commercial capital.</s>BEIRUT (AP) — Fierce fighting broke out around the Syrian city of Aleppo Friday as rebels announced a large-scale offensive to break the government’s siege of opposition-held areas.

A reporter inside the city on the pro-government Mayadeen TV channel reported attacks on “all sides” of the city, “from the furthest points north to furthest south.”

Sounds of heavy gunfire, mortar fire, and explosions were heard in the background of his broadcast. Dark smoke was seen rising above the city on the overcast morning.

Presumed government or Russian jets were also heard flying overhead. The reporter said they were targeting rebel positions.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels detonated two car bombs against government positions to the city’s southwest and attacked with hundreds of rockets. It said at least one of the vehicles was driven by a suicide bomber for the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

Aleppo is the focal point of the six-year war. President Bashar Assad has said he is determined to retake the country’s largest city and former commercial capital. The government has maintained a siege on the rebel-held eastern quarters since September. The U.N. estimates 275,000 people are trapped inside with dwindling supplies of food and medicine.

The Islamic Front rebel coalition announced on Twitter Friday morning that the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group targeted a military airport to the east of the city with Grad rockets and destroyed a government position to the west of the city.

Ammar Sakkar, the military spokesman for the Fastaqim faction inside the city, said “all the revolutionary factions, without exception, are participating in the battle.”

This is the second attempt by rebels to break the government’s siege. They opened a corridor to the east for the month of August after pro-government forces first applied a blockade in July.

Rebels launched the offensive as the Russian, Syrian, and Iranian foreign ministers met in Moscow. Iran and Russia are Assad’s main backers and have committed air power, ground forces, and military advisers to the war.</s>Syrian opposition fighters today launched an assault on government forces to break a months-long siege of the rebel-held neighbourhoods of east Aleppo, a rebel spokesman told AFP.

The assault started with a barrage of rocket fire into the western government-held side of the battered city that killed at least 15 civilians and injured dozens more, a monitor said.

Abu Yusef Muhajir, a military commander and spokesman for the powerful Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, said the operation involved an array of opposition factions.

Rebel groups "announce the start of the battle to break the siege of Aleppo, which will end the regime occupation of western Aleppo and break the siege on the people trapped inside," he said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel groups were firing rockets into west Aleppo as well as at government positions east of the city including the Nairab military airport.

Rebels also fired rockets into Latakia province, a coastal regime stronghold, hitting areas near the Hmeimim military base that is used by government ally Russia.

Rocket fire into Latakia killed at least one person and wounded six others, the Observatory and state media said.

Rebel groups are seeking to break a government siege of east Aleppo that began in July and has led to food and medical shortages.

Opposition forces briefly broke the siege in August, but no aid has entered the east since July.

Last month, government forces launched an operation to recapture the east, backed by Russian air power.

The operation has killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed infrastructure including hospitals, prompting international condemnation.</s>Syrian rebels including jihadists began a counter-attack against the army and its allies on Friday aiming to break a weeks-long siege on eastern Aleppo, insurgents said.

The assault, employing heavy shelling and suicide car bombs, was mainly focused on the city’s western edge by rebels based outside Aleppo. It included Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a former affiliate of al Qaeda previously known as the Nusra Front, and groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said more than 15 civilians had been killed and 100 wounded by rebel shelling of government-held western Aleppo. State media reported that five civilians were killed.

There were conflicting accounts of advances in areas on the city’s outskirts.

Aleppo, Syria’s biggest pre-war city, has become the main theater of conflict between President Bashar al-Assad backed by Iran, Russia and Shi’ite militias, and Sunni rebels including groups supported by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.

The city has been divided for years between the government-held western sector and rebel-held east, which the army and its allies put under siege this summer and where they launched a new offensive in September that medics say has killed hundreds.

Photographs showed insurgents approaching Aleppo in tanks, armored vehicles, bulldozers, make-shift mine sweepers, pick-up trucks and on motorcycles, and showed a large column of smoke rising in the distance after an explosion.

Rebels said they had taken several positions from government forces. But a Syrian military source said the attack on the western side of the city had been thwarted. A state television station reported that the army had destroyed four car bombs.

Abu Anas al-Shami, a member of the Fateh al-Sham media office, told Reuters from Syria the group had carried out two “martyrdom operations”, after which its fighters had gone in and had been able to “liberate a number of important areas”. A third such attack had been carried out by another Islamist group.

A senior official in the Levant Front, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) group, said: “There is a general call-up for anyone who can bear arms.”

Heavy rebel bombardment, with more than 150 rockets and shells, struck southwestern districts, the Observatory said.

Fateh al-Sham played a big part in a rebel attack in July that managed to break the government siege on eastern Aleppo for several weeks before it was reimposed.

Abu Youssef al-Mouhajir, an official from the powerful Ahrar al-Sham Islamist group, said the extent of cooperation between the different rebel factions was unusual, and that the largest axis of attack was on the western edge of the city.

“This long axis disperses the enemy and it provides us with good cover in the sense that the enemy’s attacks are not focused,” he said.

The powerful role played by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, listed by many countries as a terrorist group, has complicated Western policy towards supporting the anti-Assad opposition.

The United States has prevented more powerful weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles from being supplied to rebels partly out of fear they could end up in jihadist hands.

Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s pre-war population, dragged in regional and global powers and caused a refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe.

Grad rockets were launched at Aleppo’s Nairab air base before the assault began said Zakaria Malahiji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group, adding that it was going to be “a big battle”.

The Observatory also said that Grad surface-to-surface rockets had struck locations around the Hmeimim air base, near Latakia.</s>This still image taken from drone footage, posted online by the communications arm of Ahrar Al Sham militant group, purports to show a blast on the ground, apparently the result of an air strike, in a Syrian-government controlled neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria (Ahrar Al Sham, militant video, via AP)

ALEPPO — Car bombs and rocket fire shook Aleppo on Saturday as rebels battled to break a suffocating siege by the Syrian regime, accused by Washington of using starvation as a "weapon of war".

The offensive, launched on Friday, aims to break through a three-month encirclement of the battered city's eastern districts, where more than 250,000 people live 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 from the frontline district of Dahiyet Al Assad, on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo.

Fighting and air strikes pounded nearly all of Aleppo's western outskirts, with the most intense clashes reported in the districts of Al Zahraa and Dahiyet Al Assad.

Yasser Al Youssef of the Noureddin Al Zinki rebel faction said opposition fighters opened a new front in Al Zahraa on Saturday with a massive car bombing.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said rebels and allied extremists have unleashed a barrage of rocket fire and at least 10 car bombs since their assault began.

The British-based group said two days of fighting have killed at least 20 regime forces and allied fighters as well as 26 Syrian rebels, but it did not give a toll for foreign militants battling alongside the opposition.

At least 21 civilians, including two children, have been killed in rebel bombardment since Friday morning.

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

The offensive has seen more than 1,500 rebels from the provinces of Aleppo and nearby Idlib amass along a front stretching for 15 kilometres down the city’s western edges.

Their aim is to work their way east through a sprawling military complex, then to the district of Al Hamdaniyeh to break through government lines.

Fighting on Saturday was so fierce around Al Zahraa and Dahiyet Al Assad that the explosions and gunfire could be heard across Aleppo’s eastern half, AFP’s correspondent there said.

“There have not been clashes this intense in Al Zahraa since 2012,” when opposition fighters seized Aleppo’s east, said observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said pro-government forces launched a counter-attack on Saturday and managed to recapture several positions in Dahiyet Al Assad, where rebels had scored a major advance.

An AFP correspondent who visited the district saw deserted streets and extensive damage to buildings battered by air strikes and artillery fire.

Syria’s second city, Aleppo has been devastated by some of the heaviest fighting of the country’s five-year civil war that began with anti-government protests and has since killed more than 300,000 people.

Much of the once-bustling economic hub has been reduced to rubble by air and artillery bombardment, including barrel bombs — crude unguided explosive devices that cause indiscriminate damage.

Last week, Russia implemented a three-day “humanitarian truce” intended to allow civilians and surrendering rebels to leave the east, but few did so.

Russia, whose intervention in September 2015 with air strikes in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces was seen as a game-changer, says it has not bombed Aleppo since October 18.

The observatory said Saturday that Russian raids have been battering Aleppo’s western battlefronts, but confirmed the halt to Moscow’s aerial bombing of the city itself was holding.

The Russian military said Friday it had asked President Vladimir Putin for authorisation to resume the raids.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin “considers it inappropriate at the current moment”, adding the president thought it necessary to “continue the humanitarian pause” in the city.

The United States on Friday accused the regime of using starvation as a weapon of war — a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Rejecting Kremlin claims that attacks on Aleppo have stopped, a US official told AFP that “the regime has rejected UN requests to deliver aid to eastern Aleppo — using starvation as a weapon of war”.

Aleppo’s front line runs through the heart of the city, dividing rebels in the east from government troops in the west.

It lies at the crossroads of key transport routes, making it a strategic prize for both sides and a potential bargaining chip for both opposition and regime forces if UN-brokered peace talks are resumed.</s>Opposition social media showed videos of rebel tanks, armored personnel carriers, grad rockets and artillery firing from the southwest of the city, in an apparent attempt to break through Syrian government offenses from the outside of Aleppo.

"The whole city can hear the clashes, it is very huge," a resident in a government-controlled part of the city told CNN on condition of anonymity.

At least 15 people were killed and more than 100 others were wounded when hundreds of mortar rounds showered down on several residential neighborhoods in regime-held areas of western Aleppo, the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said in a statement.

Clashes are continuing in several areas on the outskirts of western Aleppo between Syrian forces and various rebel groups, including Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, according to SOHR.

"It is more than big," said Ismail Abdullah, a rescue worker in Aleppo's rebel held east, when asked about the fighting. Russia's military has asked President Vladimir Putin for permission to resume airstrikes on the eastern part of the city after a lull in fighting last week, Russia's state news agency Tass reported Friday. Jabhet Fateh al-Sham fighters carried out three suicide car bombings targeting regime forces in the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo, according to the SOHR, which said there were many killed and wounded from the bombings but could not provide an exact number yet. Jabhet Fateh al-Sham -- formerly al-Nusra Front -- confirmed the offensive had begun on their Telegram channel. On Twitter, the al-Sham Legion rebel group announced that shelling on government areas was underway. The rebel attack comes after Syrian government and allied Russian forces declared a unilateral ceasefire last week, which brought several days of relative calm after weeks of intense aerial bombardment. But the ceasefire effectively ended Sunday when warplanes resumed bombing the city, according to residents. The United Nations blames both sides in the conflict for failing to take advantage of ceasefire to allow the evacuation of some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians believed to be trapped in eastern Aleppo. Aleppo: Who still lives in this decimated city -- and why? The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that at least 400 people had been killed by Russian and Syrian government aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo in less than a month. Stephen O'Brien also told the UN Security Council that throughout October, rebel mortar strikes killed at least 100 people, including 17 women and 22 children. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly suggested that the deaths of six children at a school were related to a new offensive launched by rebels Friday. The violence on the school occurred Thursday.</s>Opposition fighters in the Syrian city of Aleppo claimed responsibility for at least two car bombings against regime positions, in conjunction with what they say is a rebel offensive to try to break the siege around rebel-controlled eastern neighborhoods.

"The whole city can hear the clashes, it is very huge," a resident of a government controlled part of the city told CNN on Friday, on condition of anonymity.

"It is more than big," said Ismail Abdullah, a rescue worker in Aleppo's rebel held east, when asked about the fighting.

Jabhet Fateh al-Sham -- formerly al-Nusra Front -- confirmed the offensive had begun on their Telegram channel. On Twitter, the al-Sham Legion rebel group announced that shelling on government areas was underway.

Opposition social media showed videos of rebel tanks, armored personnel carriers, grad rockets and artillery firing from the southwest of the city, in an apparent attempt to break through Syrian government offenses from the outside of Aleppo.

The rebel attack comes after Syrian government and allied Russian forces declared a unilateral ceasefire last week, bringing several days of calm after weeks of intense aerial bombardment. The United Nations blames both sides in the conflict for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting to allow the evacuation of some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians believed to be trapped in eastern Aleppo. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that at least 400 people had been killed by Russian and Syrian government aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo in less than a month. Stephen O'Brien also told the UN Security Council that throughout October, rebel mortar strikes killed at least 100 people, including 17 women and 22 children. Developing story -- more to come
More than 15 civilians are reported killed and another 100 injured as Syria's Army of Conquest and other jihadist rebels launch an offensive to break the government-led siege on eastern Aleppo.