...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
for the first time since an uprising against the regime erupted 14 months ago, a monitoring group said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the tanks rumbled through the Kalasse and Bustan al-Kasr neighborhoods of the northern city, where thousands of people attended a funeral.
The Observatory reported earlier that a young man was killed in Aleppo when troops fired with live rounds and tear gas on protesters in the city, where 12 massive anti-regime rallies took place on Friday.
"Long live Syria! Down with Assad!" demonstrators chanted at the funeral, shortly after tens of thousands of people erupted into the streets to demand the overthrow of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's regime, according to the watchdog.
"They are the most important protests in Aleppo" since the uprising started in March 2011, said the Observatory's head Rami Abdel Rahman.