Syria's main opposition group called on Sunday on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to discuss the fighting in the northern city of Aleppo...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...
, saying that the regime is planning "massacres."
"The Syrian National Council calls on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to discuss the situation in Aleppo, Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
and Homs," the SNC said, adding that the "regime (of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
) is preparing to storm and commit massacres in Aleppo."
As fighting raged in a major regime offensive on the city, the SNC warned that Assad's army was preparing "massacres of the type committed in Houla, Al-Kubeir and Treimsa," in reference to attacks on villages in the central provinces of Homs and Hama.
The UN Security Council should "take action to provide civilians with the needed protection from brutal bombing campaigns," the SNC statement said.
It also called on "countries which are friendly to the Syrian people to take serious steps towards the establishment of a no-fly zone, and the creation of safe zones where two million displaced people can seek protection."