Kerry says military pressure may be needed to oust Assad

Heavy fighting shakes the Syrian city of Aleppo Thursday as the exiled opposition chief Khaled Khoja says for the first time that President Bashar Assad’s ouster need not be a pre-condition for peace talks.

US Secretary of State John Kerry says meanwhile that “military pressure” may be needed to oust Assad, as Moscow announces it will host a fresh round of peace talks next month.

Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, saw fierce clashes between regime forces and rebels near an air force intelligence headquarters that the opposition tried to seize in a spectacular attack on Wednesday.

The attack, which began with a powerful blast from explosives in a tunnel dug near the building, left at least 20 members of regime security forces and 14 rebels dead.

A Syrian military source tells AFP that the army has on Thursday launched an attack “against (rebel) gunmen positions” in the area, “killing and wounding many of them”.

Regime forces also strike rebel-held territory in the east of the city, killing at least 22 civilians, including three children, in a single barrel bomb attack, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.

— AFP