At least 20 victims among Syrian security forces, another 14 on the rebels side. But the Damascus army managed to repel the assault. The offices of the Air Force Intelligence building targeted. Six other victims among civilians in a second attack. The rebels reject UN envoy’s truce proposal.

Aleppo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least 34 people died in a rebel attack on a government security building in Aleppo, northern Syria yesterday. The bomb attack which was followed by a ground assault.

According to reports from the London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 20 there were victims among security forces and 14 among the rebels.

Meanwhile the United Nations attempt at mediation has ground to a halt after the insurgents coalition rejected the peace plan proposed UN Envoy for the city of Aleppo.

Local jihadist groups, including the Al Nusra Front - the Syrian section of al Qaeda - together with Muhajireen and the Army of Ansar claimed responsibility for the attack, which began yesterday morning and destroyed part of the building that housed the offices of Air Force intelligence. The goal was to take control of a strategic building of the city, but the assault "failed."

Six civilians, meanwhile, were killed in a second attack launched by rebels against stations controlled by the Damascus army.

Aleppo, about 50 km south of the border with Turkey, has long been divided into areas controlled by the Syrian security forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad and rebel groups, a varied galaxy united by the common goal of overthrowing the government.

Yesterday's attack is the most serious since the failure of the proposed truce advanced by UN envoy Staffan De Mistura. The diplomat had suggested a temporary ceasefire in Aleppo, to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the city and at the same time develop a first draft for political agreement.

However, the rebel delegates rejected the proposal; they claim that the only basis for a possible agreement must include the resignation of President Assad, to encourage a "comprehensive solution" to the question. A position that is not shared by De Mistura, who considers the Syrian president "part of the solution" to the Syrian conflict.

The "Arab Spring" which erupted in Syria in 2011, with a call for greater democracy, slid into an embedded civil war sparking a regional and international conflict, with the Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE) and the US that supporting the rebels, and Iran and Russia supporting Assad. Because of the divisions in the UN Security Council, any dialogue to find solutions has been impossible so far.

According to UN estimates, to date at least 220 thousand people have been killed in the war; more than 3 million Syrians have fled to Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq; about 6 million are internally displaced.

 

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