A long-expected Syrian army onslaught to drive rebel forces out of Aleppo is imminent, following a military build-up around the country’s biggest city, a senior United Nations official said. President Bashar Assad’s forces killed more than 80 people in a series of attacks across the country on August 2 and 3. The violence came within hours of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan quitting as international peace envoy for Syria and underlined the impotence of mediation efforts in the 17-month-old uprising against Assad. The fighting has spread to Aleppo from Damascus after a bomb attack on Assad’s security headquarters in the capital on July 18, which killed four of the president’s senior aides and encouraged rebels to step up hostilities.
The Syrian army has reinforced its positions in and around Aleppo over the past two weeks, while conducting daily artillery and aerial bombardments of rebel forces in the city. “The focus two weeks ago was on Damascus. The focus is now on Aleppo, where there has been a considerable build-up of military means, and where we have reason to believe that the main battle is about to start,” Herve Ladsous, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said in New York.