Over 130 Syrian civilians killed in militant shelling

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that the deadly attacks targeted government-held areas of the embattled city since July 31.

The group’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said at least seven civilians were killed in militant shelling of the government-controlled neighborhood of Hamdaniyah.

The UK-based monitoring group also said that more than 500 terrorists and government forces were killed in one week of fierce fighting to control the strategic city of Aleppo.

The group could not give a specific toll, but said the majority of those killed since Sunday were terrorists who died in airstrikes carried out by the Syrian and Russian air forces.

On Saturday, the Syrian army, backed by air and artillery cover, delivered a major blow to the terrorist groups after the latter launched repeated attacks on military academies to the south of Aleppo.

A military source said a large number of terrorists, who were trying to end a siege of militant-held areas, were killed and many others sustained injuries in the clashes.

Other reports said the Syrian army had repelled an attack by terrorist groups on an army artillery base in Aleppo, inflicting heavy casualties on the terrorists.

Militants had claimed they had captured the main fortress-like artillery academy in the Ramousah quarter in southwestern Aleppo.

Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and militants in the east since 2012.

Some 250,000 civilians live under siege in Aleppo's militant-held areas since the army cut off the last road into militant districts in early July.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

The United Nations (UN)’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

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