The Syrian army sought Tuesday, through intense air raids, to hit rebels and re-take control on a key area which serves as a passage for military reinforcements to the north of Syria.
The army has been conducting for the past 48 hours a counter-attack to regain key positions, especially the town of al-Maaret Noomane located on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. Military reinforcements, on the way to the North, must go through the rural areas, which are being held by the rebels .
By taking Maaret al-Noomane in the province of Idleb, on October 9, the rebels cut this significant route, and they can attack reinforcements on this route, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR ).
Air raids around the city are the "most intense" since taking Maaret al-Noomane and the anti-aircraft batteries of the rebels have responded, said the president of the SOHR, Rami Abdel Rahman ."The loyalist army tries to regroup his forces and to retake Maaret al-Noomane but so far can't send reinforcements," he said.
In the Aleppo region, further north, which sees three months of fierce fighting, intense battles took place today in several neighborhoods. Further south in Homs (center), nicknamed "Capital of the Revolution", the district Khaldiye that the regime tries to control is still pounded as well as the rebel city of Talbisse.
In the province of Damascus, the regime's forces bombed the city of Duma and the insurgent Jobar neighborhood in the east of the capital. These clashes occur in the wake of a new bloody day across Syria during which 151 people died -78 civilians, 46 soldiers and 27 rebels, according to the SOHR.
The conflict has not spared Syria's heritage. The Jewel of Aleppo, a part of the Great Umayyad Mosque, controlled by regime's forces, suffered extensive damage due to the fighting.
Meanwhile, the regime of Bashar al-Assad or rebel leaders are yet to respond to the call by the international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi for a lull in the fighting during the Muslim celebration of Eid Al-Adha late October. Brahimi today is in Cairo - the fifth stop of his current regional tour aimed at trying to find a solution to the Syrian civil war .Brahimi will spend several days in Cairo and meet among others the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi.
On 10 October, the authorities in Damascus rejected a call from UN chief Ban Ki-moon to unilaterally declare a cease-fire.
