BEIRUT — Syrian government forces carried out heavy airstrikes on rebel positions in and around the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, aiming to repel a major Islamist-led offensive on areas controlled by President Bashar Al-Assad. Thursday's attack, the most intense insurgent offensive in Aleppo in three years, aimed to build on recent advances against Assad by an array of groups fighting on separate fronts, including Daesh and rebels backed by his regional foes. Aleppo, 50 km south of the Turkish border, was Syria's most populous city before the country's descent into civil war. It has been partitioned into zones of government and insurgent control since 2012. Aleppo is of vital importance to Assad, and losing it would further entrench a de facto partition of Syria between western areas still governed from Damascus and the rest of the country run by a patchwork of militias. Fighting between the insurgents and government forces in Aleppo raged into the early hours of Friday, and Syrian air and army strikes on rebel emplacements were continuous, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the war, said. — Reuters
