Fierce fighting kills 35 around Syria’s Aleppo

Beirut / AFP

Clashes around Syria’s second city Aleppo have killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate and allied rebel groups within a 24-hour period, a monitor said on Sunday.
“Fierce fighting raged past midnight (Sunday) on several fronts in the south of Aleppo province,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters were fighting alongside regime troops and other loyalist militia against extremists and rebels, the monitoring group said. “Shelling and fighting in the past 24 hours has left 19 Syrian and non-Syrian members of Al-Nusra dead… while 16 pro-regime fighters were also killed,” the Observatory said, adding that one of the extremists had blown himself up.
A truce brokered by the United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria’s war, does not apply to the fight against extremists.