Dozens of opposing fighters and government forces have been killed in fighting near a police academy near the northern city of Aleppo, anti-regime activists said Tuesday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead in the last two days of clashes included at least 26 opposing fighters, 40 soldiers and five pro-government militiamen. The Observatory reported fresh fighting near the Police academy on Tuesday, with the two sides shelling each other and the government launching airstrikes on opposition positions. The fighting has largely destroyed Aleppo, long considered one of Syria's most beautiful cities, and caused humanitarian conditions for the city's remaining civilians to plummet, according to a report of the Associated Press. On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said more than 140 people had been killed in at least 4 missile strikes by the Syrian government in and near the city of Aleppo last week. About half of the dead were children, it said. The New York-based group said the strikes hit residential areas and called them an "escalation of unlawful attacks against Syria's civilian population."
