FSA soldiers help a severely wounded colleague after being shot by a Syrian Army sniper in Izaa district in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Sept 8, 2012. On Friday, U.S. Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham, who have toured the volatile Middle East in recent days, urged Washington to help arm Syria’s rebels with weapons and create a safe zone inside the country for a transition government.
Photograph by: Manu Brabo , AP Photo
BEIRUT — The Syrian regime pounded Aleppo with warplanes and artillery shelling Saturday as ground forces seeking to regain momentum in the country’s largest city advanced on three neighbourhoods, activists said.
The new fighting came as Russia soundly rejected U.S. calls for increased pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to relinquish power, citing its commercial interests.
Shelling and air raids against the eastern Helwaniyeh neighbourhood caused a large number of casualties, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and another activist group called the Local Coordination Committees. Amateur videos showed wounded people bleeding on the floor of a crowded makeshift hospital as they received treatment.
The LCC said 148 people were killed nationwide, including 77 in Aleppo. Thirty of those were killed in Helwaniyeh, it said.
