27 civilians killed in Syria as rebels breach Aleppo

Syrian insurgents have breached Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, after blowing up two car bombs, and were clashing with government forces on Friday, according to a Syria war monitor and fighters. Insurgents have been approaching Aleppo for days and have seized several towns and villages along the way.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the insurgents blew up two car bombs at the city’s western edge on Friday.

An insurgent commander issued a recorded message posted on social media calling on the city’s residents to cooperate with the advancing forces.

Thousands of Syrian insurgents pushed on with their advances on government-held areas in the country’s northwest, reaching the outskirts of Aleppo and wrestling control of several strategic towns and villages along the way, activists and fighters said on Friday.

Syria’s state media said projectiles from insurgents landed in the student accommodations at Aleppo’s university in the city centre, killing four people, including two students.

The fighting in northwestern Syria over the last three days killed 27 civilians, a UN official said. The attack was the biggest since March 2020, when Russia and Turkey, which supports some of the rebels, agreed to a deal that de-escalated the conflict.