BEIRUT – The Syrian regime pounded Aleppo with warplanes and artillery shelling Saturday as ground forces seeking to regain momentum in the country’s largest city advanced on three neighborhoods, activists said.

Shelling and air raids against the eastern Helwaniyeh neighborhood caused a large number of casualties, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees.

The LCC said 148 people were killed nationwide, including 77 in Aleppo. Thirty of those were killed in Helwaniyeh, it said.

Activist accounts and videos cannot be independently confirmed because the regime has strictly limited independent reporting in the country.

The Observatory also said government forces advanced in the neighborhoods of Salaheddine, Seif el-Dawleh and Izaa after rebels withdrew from the areas under heavy shelling.

 


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