Syrian rebels enter strategic Aleppo neighborhood

State-run station says insurgents capture pro-government cleric, behead him and place his head on his mosque’s minaret

30 March 2013, 4:21 pm

Edit

Smoke rising in Aleppo, Syria after a Syrian mortar shell landed in a neighborhood. (file photo; photo credit: Narciso Contreras/AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say Syrian rebels have taken control of at least part of a strategic neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy fighting.

The Aleppo Media Center opposition group and Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed say rebels seized control of the predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Sheik Maqsoud in its entirety late Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, says rebels took only the eastern part of the neighborhood, and reported heavy fighting there Saturday.

The Observatory also said rebels captured a pro-government Sunni Muslim cleric, killed him, then paraded his body around the neighborhood.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV identified the cleric as Hassan Seifeddine. It said he was beheaded and his head was placed on the minaret of Al-Hassan Mosque where he used to lead the prayers.