Free Syrian Army fighters pose with an opposition flag at al-Ansari in Aleppo. (Reuters)
The opposition, Free Syrian Army (FSA) claimed control of around 60 percent of the city of Aleppo, Al Arabiya reported on Saturday.
After still continuing battles with the Syrian regime’s army, FSA was able to control buildings of radio and TV stations in the northern city; however it claimed its later retreat from inside the buildings as “tactical.”
Captain Hussam Abu Mohammed, who participated in the battles around the buildings, said that the army’s retreat from the buildings was “tactical,” after the regime’s army’s shelling the FSA from helicopters.
FSA says it is now in control of the areas surrounding the media buildings.
Meanwhile, battles between FSA and the regime’s army are continuing. The Syrian Revolutionary Council said the regime’s army continued shelling a TV station building in Aleppo.
During the battles between FSA and the regime’s army, correspondents belonging to the Syrian National Council (SNC) reported that broadcasts from Syrian TV channels, one and two, have stopped.
SNC also reported of battles taking place in Salah al-Din and al-Furkan neighborhoods in Aleppo.
Abduljabir al-Kaidi, head of the military council of SNC in Aleppo, meanwhile, told Al Arabiya that the Syrian regime is using foreign fighters especially Iranians.
In the same time, FSA denounced opposition fighters executing regime elements, saying it was “outside the law.”
A YouTube video on July 31 showed rebels, not clear if they were FSA fighters, executing the regime’s gang-like militia, the Shabiha, with bullets in Aleppo, amid pro-FSA chants.
