ALEPPO
Violence escalated in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on Friday as severe clashes have been reported in Haian town between the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Islamic Front.
Media spokesperson for the Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC) Ahmed Mohamad Ali told Anadolu Agency that violent clashes broke out in Haian town, while ISIL militias attacked the town with heavy weapons, severely damaging the places of worship and several residential areas.
"For the last two days, the ISIL has been mounting attacks with bomb-laden vehicles on check points held by the Islamic Front in Aleppo's Al-Bab and Haian towns," said Ali, adding that the ISIL ratcheted up its attacks also in the suburbs of Aleppo, with clashes continuing in the Carablus district of Aleppo and Tel Abyad district of Raqqa province.
Stating that ISIL pulled back from Aleppo's city center, Ali said "Abu Umar al-Chechen, commander of ISIL's northern front militias, entered Aleppo's Al-Bab with a convoy of 30 vehicles comprised of troops under his command after he lifted the ISIL's siege of Deir-az-Zor airport. ISIL has now started to build up. We are concerned that ISIL might attack the areas in Aleppo that are held by the opposition forces."
- SNHR: 83 people died in Syria including 47 in Homs in regime attacks and because of cold weather, lack of basic foodstuff
Meanwhile, at least 83 people were killed including 4 children and 3 women throughout Syria in ground and aerial attacks by the Assad regime's armed forces on opposition held areas as well as because of the extreme cold and lack of basic foodstuff, while 4 of them were tortured to death, activists said.
Syrian regime forces killed 47 in Homs, 10 in Daraa, six each in Aleppo, Hama and in the suburbs of Damascus, four in Idlib, two each in Deir ez-Zor and Latakia, according to a statement by the Syrian Network of Human Rights (SNHR), a London-based group which tracks civilian and dissident casualties.
Besides, the SNHR put the death toll among children over 12,000 since clashes broke out in Syria in March 2011.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in almost three years of conflict in Syria and over two million Syrians are now registered as refugees in neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, according to the UN.
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