Syrian Free Army also calls for creation of a no-fly zone inside Syria to protect rebels in their battle to oust President Bashar Assad.
Opposition rebels said Monday they had shot down a government warplane in eastern Syria, whilst calling for a no-fly zone to be created. “The rebels shot down the plane and captured its pilot in (the province of) Deir al-Zour,” the opposition Local Coordination Committees reported. The claim could not be independently verified.
The rebels also called for the creation of a no-fly zone inside Syria to protect them during their battle to oust President Bashar Assad.
“What is hindering our movements to take control of more areas (in Syria) is the constant bombardment launched by the regime jets,” said Abu Alaa, a commander in the Syrian Free Army in the embattled city of Aleppo. “Imposing a no-fly zone is essential for us to continue our fight,” he told DPA by phone.
The head of the opposition Syrian National Council, Abdelbasset Sida, was quoted by Arab media on Monday as saying that most Western countries, including the United States, have started to see that a no-fly zone as “essential.”
Sida’s comments came two days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Turkey and said her country and Turkey would study a series of possible measures to help Assad’s opponents.
In Syria itself, fighting had been raging since the early hours of Monday in Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, according to Abu Alaa, the rebel commander.
The clashes come after rebels lost control of the district of Salaheddin on the southern outskirts of Aleppo, one of their key strongholds in the northern city.
Abu Alaa denied state media reports that the government troops had retaken control of the neighboring district of Seif al-Dawla.
“We are still in full control of the district and we have carried out a major attack on the regime forces in the Zahra neighborhood (an area close to Seif al Dawla),” Abu Alaa said.
The three-week battle in Aleppo could decide the course of the conflict in Syria. However, fighting inside Syria’s key commercial hub seems to have settled into a stalemate.
