Spotlight: Aleppo in focus as decisive siege and fightback rage on

The rebels in Syria's northern province of Aleppo started on Friday a wide-scale offensive against the Syrian government forces' positions, coupled with Grad missile shelling and car bombs, local media said.

The Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham, the Jaish al-Fateh, or Army of Conquest, and the Mujahideen Army, unleashed a major offensive dubbed "Greater Aleppo's Epic," with the aim of breaking the government forces' siege on rebel-held areas in the eastern part of Aleppo city, activists said.

The attack targeted government forces' positions in western Aleppo, and the rebels remotely detonated at least two car bombs near military positions at the western gate of Aleppo city.

The Mujahideen Army said in a statement that its rebels succeeded to break the government forces' first defense lines in the Assad Suburb in western Aleppo.

The rebels' attack was also coupled with shelling on government-controlled areas in western Aleppo and elsewhere in the countryside of that key battleground province.

Pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the rebels fired 20 Grad missiles on the International Airport of Aleppo on Friday morning, leaving only property losses.

The airport has been inoperative for a long time, and became almost a military base.

Meanwhile, a Syrian military source told Xinhua that the Syrian forces and allies fighters are confronting the rebel attack on several fronts in Aleppo.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the rebels were trying to advance into Assad Suburb, by detonating two car bombs "but they couldn't reach their targets."

The Syrian army has laid a siege on rebel-held areas in Aleppo in recent months, urging the rebels to surrender themselves or leave eastern Aleppo to other rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The rebels didn't comply with the military repeated requests. Last week, a three-day truce, aiming to ease the evacuation of civilians and rebels who want to surrender in exchange for pardon, expired with a few civilians and rebels evacuating.

The Syrian government accused the rebels of preventing the civilians, around 250,000, from leaving.

Observers believe that Aleppo is going to be the decisive battle ground among the fighting groups, and the winner will be the one dictating its conditions to resolve the crisis, as the province contain all the groups that are supported by regional and international powers, with the civilians paying the price for this proxy war. Endit