Syria's Turkish border units 'head for Aleppo'

Graphic unverified amateur footage shows a man in Qaboun, Damascus, going house-to-house discovering bloodied corpses, as Jim Muir reports

Thousands of Syrian soldiers are being moved from the border with Turkey to join fierce fighting in the city of Aleppo, activists have said.

Rebels said their fighters had attacked columns of troops as they left their posts in Jabal al-Zawiya area.
Aleppo, the country's second city, has seen fierce clashes all week, with the government deploying fighter jets and helicopters to beat back the rebels.
Government forces have largely repelled a rebel assault on Damascus.
Speaking amid news of the latest fighting, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon urged the world community to act immediately to stop the "slaughter" in Syria.
"I make a plea to the world: 'Do not delay... Act now to stop the slaughter'," the UN secretary general told parliament in Bosnia.
Until recently, Syria's two main cities had been relatively free of the violence that has wracked other parts of the country.

"The stakes for both sides here could not be higher and it is now clear that neither side is prepared to give way”

 

Ian Pannell BBC News, Aleppo

But a sustained assault by rebels earlier this month on the capital saw a dramatic upsurge in violence in Damascus.

And on Tuesday fighter jets strafed parts of Aleppo, with civilians and rebel fighters reported to be among the fatalities from fighting there.
It was thought to be the first time that fighter planes had been deployed in such a way since anti-regime protests began in March 2011.
The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says the battle for Aleppo is almost as crucial for the regime's survival as the battle for the capital.
He says residents of Aleppo, a northern city regarded as the country's commercial hub, will know what to expect if they have seen what happened in Damascus.
Newly released video footage from activists shows streets in the capital's Qaboun quarter shattered by shellfire.
Other footage shows the corpses of large numbers of men discovered in several houses.
Fighting in both cities has been reported throughout Wednesday.