Regime warplanes struck rebel positions in Aleppo Monday, killing three children, as insurgents claimed to control most of Syria ahead of a UN Security Council address by peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Before the annual UN General Assembly beginning on Tuesday, the UN and Arab League envoy is set to brief the UN Security Council behind closed doors on his contacts in Damascus, including with President Bashar al-Assad.
Brahimi discussed Syria with UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Saturday and both agreed that the 18-month crisis was “a steadily increasing threat to regional peace and stability,” a statement said.
Monday’s briefing comes a day after at least 82 people were killed in violence nationwide in Syria — among them 40 civilians — according to figures supplied by Britain-based watchdog the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said three children from one family were among five people killed in a strike by regime warplanes on Monday on the northern city of Aleppo, the country’s commercial hub that has been a focus for fighting since mid-July.
“Three children from the same family were killed when their building collapsed in Maadi district, which is located in the Old City of Aleppo, 600 metres (yards) from the citadel,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
“There are still people buried under the rubble.”
Videos posted to YouTube by activists, which AFP was unable to authenticate immediately, showed a mountain of rubble and men trying to clear away slabs of debris to free trapped residents.
A fourth child, a girl, was killed in heavy shelling of Aleppo’s northern neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsud where several homes were destroyed, the Observatory said.
Battles raged overnight in the western districts of Jamiliyeh, Bustan al-Qasr, Furqan and in Zabdiyeh, while the army shelled rebel positions in Marjeh, Tariq al-Bab and Zabdiyeh, the Observatory said. In Damascus, pre-dawn clashes erupted in the eastern neighbourhood of Qaboon, said the watchdog, while northwest of the city, a large explosion rocked Qudsaya suburb after midnight.
The northeast suburb of Douma and farmland between Douma and nearby Harasta were also shelled overnight.
Outside Damascus the army clashed with rebels in Ghuta, while Zabadani near the Lebanese border and the eastern Damascus suburb of Zamalka were shelled.
The army also bombarded towns and villages across the northwest province of Idlib, while fierce clashes broke out between the army and rebels in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and near an airport in the northern province of Raqa.
