BEIRUT — Syrian troops exchanged fire with rebels in the contested northern city of Aleppo on Thursday in a renewed bout of fighting that could further mar peace talks underway in Geneva while the Islamic State group attacked rebel-held areas in the country’s north, forcing thousands to flee toward the border with Turkey.
The renewed fighting underscores the fragility of the cease-fire that has largely held for several weeks despite deep differences between government and opposition representatives in U.N.-brokered peace talks. Those negotiations resumed Wednesday in Geneva, with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura meeting Syrian opposition representatives.
Government representatives are expected to join the talks on Friday. The two sides have yet to negotiate directly, with de Mistura instead shuttling between the camps. The most obvious public difference between the two sides revolves around the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Opposition representatives have insisted that Assad be removed from power as part of any peace deal, while government officials have declared Assad to be a red line.
During the fresh IS offensive on rival insurgent groups, the extremists captured at least one village Thursday before being forced to retreat from several areas after a counteroffensive and airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, activists said.
Government warplanes, helicopter gunships and artillery were bombarding rebel-held parts of the city and its suburbs, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Aleppo-based activist Bahaa al-Halaby.
The pro-government Addounia TV said one person was killed and five people were wounded by mortar rounds fired by insurgents into the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud district of the city.
The fighting came a day after Syrians in government-held parts of the country voted for a new parliament — balloting that the opposition has dismissed as a sham and that could further undermine the peace talks.
The Local Coordination Committees, another opposition monitoring group, said two Syrian army tanks were destroyed in the Handarat area, just north of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial center.
Al-Manar TV reported that Syrian troops captured the northern parts of Handarat. Al-Manar is run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, which is fighting alongside Assad’s forces
Aleppo has seen sporadic clashes despite a U.S.-Russia-engineered truce that went into effect in late February. Government forces and their allies have rebel-held parts of Aleppo almost surrounded from all sides, except for a corridor from the northwestern edge of the city.
“Areas close to the front lines are tense,” said al-Halaby, the activist, speaking via Skype as explosions were heard in the background. He said several shells are falling every minute on the city and its suburbs.
The Observatory and the LCC reported violence in other parts of the country, including the central province of Homs and the northwestern region of Idlib.
