BEIRUT, Lebanon — Government forces backed by jets, helicopters, artillery and tanks were reported on Friday to have resumed their pursuit of rebels in embattled Aleppo who sought to highlight small gains in the midst of a withdrawal from the most contested area of the city.
On the third day of a ground offensive that could signal a decisive turn in the battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, rebels said they continued to fight in new neighborhoods and with new tactics, as the authorities bragged of heavy losses for foes of President Bashar al-Assad.
Activist groups said on Friday that loyalist gunners were pounding parts of Aleppo while government forces were seen sending reinforcements, including tank transporters, toward the city’s airport. Farther south in Damascus, the capital, rebel sympathizers said heavy gunfire could be heard from an area in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp.
The developments came as Mr. Assad, after appearing this week on television for the first time since a bomb killed four members of his inner circle last month, also sought to project an appearance of political control and strength by appointing a new prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, to replace Riyad Farid Hijab, who defected to Jordan this week. SANA, the state news agency, reported the appointment in a brief announcement on Thursday that did not refer to the defection.
Mr. Halqi, 48, had been minister of health, and he is a Sunni Muslim from the southern town of Dara’a, where the uprising began with peaceful protests in March 2011. He holds a medical degree from Damascus University, SANA said, and his loyalist credentials include having run the Dara’a branch of the governing Baath Party.
In Tehran, state television reported the opening on Thursday of a gathering of officials from about 30 countries, including Russia and China, to discuss Syria’s future. Few of the participants seemed to be high-ranking figures — most countries simply sent their ambassadors — but the meeting appeared designed to project an image of Iran as a regional power broker after the collapse of efforts by the United Nations and the Arab League.
For their part, the rebels have secured broad Western and regional diplomatic support, even as the form that the support should take remains a subject of great debate. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will continue the discussion on Saturday when she meets with Turkish officials in Istanbul.
In London, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said on Friday that his government would contribute a further $8 million in nonlethal aid, including communications equipment and medical supplies to the rebels.
“We must build relationships now with those who may govern Syria in the future,” Mr. Hague said.
On the battlefield, the violence intensified on Thursday amid conflicting claims of progress as both the rebels and the government sought to show any evidence that their side was winning.
The state news agency said that the Syrian Army had made a “decisive attack” just outside Aleppo’s ancient center, and that an operation in several neighborhoods had killed dozens of rebel fighters, destroying three pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group in Britain with a contact network in Syria, said that rebels had destroyed several tanks and had killed at least eight soldiers.
The group also described a government ground assault that included hundreds of soldiers in armored personnel carriers and tanks, as well as loyalist gunners who pounded several areas including the strategic neighborhood of Salaheddiin, the scene of some of the most sustained and bloody fighting.
Bashir al-Haji, a spokesman for the insurgent Free Syrian Army, said rebel brigades were forced into a tactical withdrawal from much of the neighborhood early on Thursday, though he insisted that they would keep fighting government troops in other areas of the city.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to resist them,” he said.
Fighters inside the city said their brigades were running short on ammunition, and growing tired after two weeks of combat across Aleppo. Abdul Al- Basitt, 28, a rebel who was outside Salaheddiin after the retreat, said army snipers had made it difficult to move around the neighborhood, but that the opposition had a plan to take back at least part of the area.
“We’re moving from inside buildings, making holes in the walls of houses so we can run from the snipers,” he said.
Some activists said Thursday that they were growing frustrated with the Free Syrian Army’s approach.
“They don’t admit their defeats,” said Ammar, 22, an activist from Aleppo. “Everything is tactical, and all their operations are always about high expectations.”
A woman from Homs, who would not give her name, said that residents ended up suffering when the rebels moved into a neighborhood only to depart when the Syrian military entered. “Why do they claim the areas are free and say they’ve liberated them if they know they cannot stand against the regime’s troops and tanks?” she asked.
Propaganda seems to have increased as international interest in the war has grown. And increasingly in recent days, each side has sought to depict the other as sustained by foreign forces.
The rebels claim that Russia and Iran — Mr. Assad’s sturdiest allies — have sent advisers, while the state news media insist that rebel ranks are swollen with foreign fighters.
In a report from Aleppo on Thursday, SANA said that the government had “continued purging” Aleppo’s neighborhoods, including Salaheddiin, of what were called “mercenary terrorists” from the Persian Gulf sheikdoms backing the rebels.
SANA claimed that “huge numbers” of rebels had been killed or wounded and that other fighting had involved rebel supporters from Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan.
The government’s purpose behind the claims of foreign involvement — which could not be verified because of restrictions on independent reporting — seemed to be to deny the rebels’ claim to legitimacy, at least in the eyes of government supporters.
Damien Cave reported from Beirut, and Alan Cowell from Paris. An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Aleppo, Syria; Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Dalal Mawad and Hwaida Saad from Beirut; Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran; and Rick Gladstone from New York.
On the third day of a ground offensive that could signal a decisive turn in the battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, rebels said they continued to fight in new neighborhoods and with new tactics, as the authorities bragged of heavy losses for foes of President Bashar al-Assad.
Activist groups said on Friday that loyalist gunners were pounding parts of Aleppo while government forces were seen sending reinforcements, including tank transporters, toward the city’s airport. Farther south in Damascus, the capital, rebel sympathizers said heavy gunfire could be heard from an area in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp.
The developments came as Mr. Assad, after appearing this week on television for the first time since a bomb killed four members of his inner circle last month, also sought to project an appearance of political control and strength by appointing a new prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, to replace Riyad Farid Hijab, who defected to Jordan this week. SANA, the state news agency, reported the appointment in a brief announcement on Thursday that did not refer to the defection.
Mr. Halqi, 48, had been minister of health, and he is a Sunni Muslim from the southern town of Dara’a, where the uprising began with peaceful protests in March 2011. He holds a medical degree from Damascus University, SANA said, and his loyalist credentials include having run the Dara’a branch of the governing Baath Party.
In Tehran, state television reported the opening on Thursday of a gathering of officials from about 30 countries, including Russia and China, to discuss Syria’s future. Few of the participants seemed to be high-ranking figures — most countries simply sent their ambassadors — but the meeting appeared designed to project an image of Iran as a regional power broker after the collapse of efforts by the United Nations and the Arab League.
For their part, the rebels have secured broad Western and regional diplomatic support, even as the form that the support should take remains a subject of great debate. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will continue the discussion on Saturday when she meets with Turkish officials in Istanbul.
In London, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said on Friday that his government would contribute a further $8 million in nonlethal aid, including communications equipment and medical supplies to the rebels.
“We must build relationships now with those who may govern Syria in the future,” Mr. Hague said.
On the battlefield, the violence intensified on Thursday amid conflicting claims of progress as both the rebels and the government sought to show any evidence that their side was winning.
The state news agency said that the Syrian Army had made a “decisive attack” just outside Aleppo’s ancient center, and that an operation in several neighborhoods had killed dozens of rebel fighters, destroying three pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group in Britain with a contact network in Syria, said that rebels had destroyed several tanks and had killed at least eight soldiers.
The group also described a government ground assault that included hundreds of soldiers in armored personnel carriers and tanks, as well as loyalist gunners who pounded several areas including the strategic neighborhood of Salaheddiin, the scene of some of the most sustained and bloody fighting.
Bashir al-Haji, a spokesman for the insurgent Free Syrian Army, said rebel brigades were forced into a tactical withdrawal from much of the neighborhood early on Thursday, though he insisted that they would keep fighting government troops in other areas of the city.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to resist them,” he said.
Fighters inside the city said their brigades were running short on ammunition, and growing tired after two weeks of combat across Aleppo. Abdul Al- Basitt, 28, a rebel who was outside Salaheddiin after the retreat, said army snipers had made it difficult to move around the neighborhood, but that the opposition had a plan to take back at least part of the area.
“We’re moving from inside buildings, making holes in the walls of houses so we can run from the snipers,” he said.
Some activists said Thursday that they were growing frustrated with the Free Syrian Army’s approach.
“They don’t admit their defeats,” said Ammar, 22, an activist from Aleppo. “Everything is tactical, and all their operations are always about high expectations.”
A woman from Homs, who would not give her name, said that residents ended up suffering when the rebels moved into a neighborhood only to depart when the Syrian military entered. “Why do they claim the areas are free and say they’ve liberated them if they know they cannot stand against the regime’s troops and tanks?” she asked.
Propaganda seems to have increased as international interest in the war has grown. And increasingly in recent days, each side has sought to depict the other as sustained by foreign forces.
The rebels claim that Russia and Iran — Mr. Assad’s sturdiest allies — have sent advisers, while the state news media insist that rebel ranks are swollen with foreign fighters.
In a report from Aleppo on Thursday, SANA said that the government had “continued purging” Aleppo’s neighborhoods, including Salaheddiin, of what were called “mercenary terrorists” from the Persian Gulf sheikdoms backing the rebels.
SANA claimed that “huge numbers” of rebels had been killed or wounded and that other fighting had involved rebel supporters from Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan.
The government’s purpose behind the claims of foreign involvement — which could not be verified because of restrictions on independent reporting — seemed to be to deny the rebels’ claim to legitimacy, at least in the eyes of government supporters.
Damien Cave reported from Beirut, and Alan Cowell from Paris. An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Aleppo, Syria; Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Dalal Mawad and Hwaida Saad from Beirut; Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran; and Rick Gladstone from New York.