Aleppo, six civilians dead and eight wounded in rocket attack on old city

The official Sana agency speaks of "rocket attacks".  A piece of mortar hit a building belonging to the municipality.  The army responded with missiles fired on the sector occupied by jihadists and rebels.  In Idlib province people continue to fight, 15 people  killed at the weekend .

Aleppo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Six civilians are dead and eight others wounded, some of them seriously, following an attack that took place yesterday with mortar shells fired on  the old city of Aleppo, for years the epicenter of the conflict  Syrian until liberation in December 2016.

Located in the north of the country and today under the control of Bashar al-Assad, in recent weeks the area has experienced a new escalation of tension that threatens to return its inhabitants to the darkest years.

The rockets centered two quarters in the central area.  According to the official Sana news agency, the area was subject to "a rocket attack".  In the note, both anti-government rebel groups and jihadist militias contending Damascus for control of the country are called "terrorists".

Local sources report that a rocket hit a building belonging to the local municipality.  According to some local witnesses who spoke to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (Osdh), a UK-based NGO with a dense network of informers in the area, "from this morning [yesterday, ed] the jihadists east of Aleppo are taking aim at the city ".

The director of the observatory Rami Abdel Rahmane also added that the death toll could worsen in the coming hours, due to the serious conditions of some injured.  "The army - a note from the pro-government daily Al-Watan explains - responded to terrorist attacks [...] with a rain of rockets".

The identity of the jihadist militia or group responsible for the launch is not known at the moment.  The jihadists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Cham group (Hts, local branch of al-Qaeda) are present in the western area of ​​the outskirts of Aleppo, where they compete for control of the territory with small factions of jihadist militias.

Not far from Aleppo is the disputed province of Idlib, controlled by rebel groups (supported by Turkey) and jihadist militias, which so far have repelled the Damascus army offensive thanks to Ankara's support.  Since the end of April, the fighting - fueled by Russian fighters operating in close contact with its Syrian ally - has killed nearly 650 civilians.

On Saturday 14 July alone, 15 people were killed - all civilians - near Khan Cheikhoun, a town in the south of Idlib province.  Since March 2011, the war in Syria has already caused the death of nearly 500,000 people and millions of refugees, triggering the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of World War II.