Dozens killed in Syria fighting

Damascus, February 26, 2013: Dozens of rebels and government forces were killed in fighting near a police academy adjacent to the northern city of Aleppo, anti-regime activists said on Tuesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the dead in the last two days of clashes included at least 26 rebel fighters, 40 soldiers and five pro government military men.

The police academy, which activists said that the government has turned into a military base, has recently emerged as a new front in the battle for Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

Since storming into the city in July, 2012, rebels have slowly expanded their control there while taking over army installations in the northern countryside.

Losing the police academy would make it more difficult for the regime to shell opposition areas and support its troops inside the city.

The ‘Observatory’ reported fresh fighting near the academy on Tuesday, with the two sides shelling each other and the government launching air strikes on rebel positions.

The fighting has largely destroyed Aleppo, long considered one of Syria's most beautiful cities, and caused humanitarian conditions for the city's remaining civilians to plummet.

Human Rights watch said that more than 140 people had been killed in at least 4 missile strikes by the Syrian government in and near the city of Aleppo last week.

Around 71 children were among the 141 people killed in the four strikes.

Three hit neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo city.

One hit in the village of Tel Rifat, north of Aleppo.

Syria has never acknowledged the strikes, and portrays the conflict as a foreign conspiracy carried out by "terrorists" to weaken the country.