Deadly clashes continue in strategic Syrian town

AMMAN/BEIRUT: The Syrian Army and Daesh militants waged fierce battles on Wednesday around Khanaser, a strategic town southeast of Aleppo, where an attack by the militant group has cut the main land route to the city during three days of fighting.

A government military source denied reports Khanaser had fallen to Daesh. But he said its fighters were firing on it from nearby positions.
“They are around Khanaser — it is under their sniper fire,” the source told Reuters.
Daesh is escalating its assaults on government-held areas. Its suicide bombers launched some of their deadliest attacks of the war on Sunday in Damascus and Homs, killing about 200 people. It also attacked government forces near Palmyra on Wednesday.
The latest attack cut a main army supply route to parts of Aleppo where the Syrian Army has been gaining ground. Daesh also said it hit an army convoy between Salamiya and Athriya that was heading to Khanaser.
A UN spokesman said on Wednesday the United Nations is ready for a huge aid effort if the warring Syria parties stop fighting, but even then aid workers will proceed carefully and assess the safety of each delivery.
“We are now standing by, our warehouses are full of aid supplies, aid agencies are alerted, and are stocking all the goods in the warehouses waiting for the signal,” said Iyad Nasr, regional spokesman for the UN humanitarian aid office.
A US-Russian proposal for a limited “cessation of hostilities” from midnight on Saturday is intended to allow rapid and unhindered access for humanitarian agencies but it excludes Daesh and Nusra Front fighters, and Syria’s opposition has yet to back the deal.
Aid has reached a handful of besieged towns in the past few days, and most recently into another — Kafr Batna, on the outskirts of Damascus — on Wednesday.
Syria’s war has killed over 250,000 people and left 4.5 million hard to reach with humanitarian aid, the UN says. Of those, about one in 10 is living under siege, cut off from any help.