Syria rebels take strategic Aleppo area

Syrian rebels have taken control of at least part of a strategic neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy fighting, activists said today.

The Aleppo Media Centre opposition group and Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed said rebels seized control of the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheik Maqsoud in its entirety late yesterday.

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

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

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.