Suicide bombing kills 25 Syrian soldiers in Aleppo

Intense battles raged Tuesday in the western part of Syria's northern city of Aleppo, just hours after a suicide bomber killed 25 government forces when he blew himself up near a military position in that key city overnight, a monitor group reported.

The battles between an array of jihadi groups and the Syrian forces intensified Tuesday in the sprawling compound of the Scientific Researches and the nearby district of Jamiyet al-Zahra, both are main defense lines toward government-controlled areas in western Aleppo.

Last week, a total of 13 rebel groups, mainly the Nusra Front and other jihadi groups, declared the formation of a joint operations room to lead a wide-scale offensive against the government-controlled areas in western Aleppo and its countryside in the hope of driving out the government forces from the entire province.

The battles kept raging at the outskirts of western Aleppo.

On Monday evening, a suicide bomber with the al-Qaida-linked militants blew himself up near an orphanage where the government troops were stationing, in the Jamiyet al-Zahra neighborhood, killing 25 Syrian soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said the Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah launched an offensive early Tuesday against the rebels in the Scientific Researches area amid aerial bombardment and shelling against the rebels, who succeeded to storm the facility earlier this week.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once an economic hub, has become carved out between the rebels in the eastern part of the city and the Syrian troops in the west.

The rebels attempted repeatedly to storm government areas in the hope of seizing control of the entire city of Aleppo, without a success. Endit