Death toll mounts as rebels hit air base - Brisbane Times

REBELS in Syria have bombarded an air base that was apparently being used by helicopter gunships and jets to attack the northern city of Aleppo, as the toll of dead and injured in the bloody conflict continues to mount.

The rebel assault came as the Syrian army kept up its relentless offensive on towns and villages in the north of the country, pounding them with rocket-fire. Thousands of reinforcements, including those from the army's feared Republican Guard, were reportedly heading towards Aleppo as forces loyal to the President, Bashar al-Assad, fought to regain control of key areas taken by the Free Syrian Army. The United Nations reported Syrian jets had fired rockets into contested neighbourhoods of the city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ''Menagh military airport was bombarded on Thursday morning by a tank captured previously by the rebels''. The base is 30 kilometres north-west of Aleppo, the country's commercial capital.

Bombarded ... the military air base 30 kilometres west of Aleppo was attacked by a tank captured by Syrian rebel fighters. Photo: AFP

An Agence France-Presse reporter who saw the bombardment said rebels told him it was ''an attack to take this airport being used by helicopters and planes that are firing on Aleppo''.

As the fighting continues, the humanitarian situation of those trapped in the 17-month-long conflict is worsening with severe food and water shortages, no electricity and a lack of basics such as blankets and mattresses for those forced from their homes.

The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation estimates Syrians in need of food assistance will number 1.5 million over the next three to six months, climbing to 3 million over the next 12 months.

Many villages the Herald travelled through were virtually deserted, empty of almost all women and children with just men left to fight with the rebels to hold territory they had won and look after their houses.

One young man in a village high in the mountains said they had been recently forced to expand their cemetery to cope with the number of dead.

As he spoke, more rockets landed in a neighbouring village close enough to shake the doors and windows in their frame, and prompted quietly-spoken prayers from his uncle with each booming strike. The bombardment continued throughout the night.

In Aleppo, UN observers confirmed the attacks by Syrian jets and that rebels had commandeered tanks and heavy weapons

Opposition leaders - a few hours after President Assad urged his forces to step up the fight - also said they had found dozens of bodies in a suburb of Damascus in the aftermath of the Syrian army's house-to-house search for rebel fighters and activists. This claim of a new massacre came as the rebels faced severe criticism themselves for what appeared to be their brutal summary execution, one day earlier, of suspected pro-government gunmen on the streets of Aleppo, recorded and uploaded on the internet.

Analysts said the bodies, along with reports of renewed fighting in the capital and an escalation of combat in Aleppo, suggested the conflict was becoming increasingly intense and bitter, with more front lines and bloodshed.

''It's a rapid escalation,'' said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ''Once you start using fixed wing aircraft and you have a city under full revolt, it's clear that the Assad regime is not going to stop and is not breaking.''

Sausan Ghosheh, a spokeswoman for the UN monitor mission, said: ''Our observers confirmed fighter aircrafts firing rockets and canons - heavy machine-gun fire.''

Mr Tabler noted that the Syrian warplanes are not yet dropping bombs.

with The New York Times, Agence France-Presse