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DAMASCUS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed and 200 others wounded on Thursday by rebel shelling on government-controlled areas in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, state news agency SANA reported.
The shelling targeted several areas in the government-controlled western part of Aleppo.
Meanwhile, at least eight people suffered breathing difficulties, as a result of the rebel attack with poisonous gas on the suburb of Menyan in western Aleppo, SANA said.
Earlier in the day, the rebels of Jaish al-Fateh, or the Army of Conquest, launched the "second stage" of a battle to break the siege imposed by the government forces on the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo.
In a statement, the group said the attack on Thursday was unleashed by shelling on government positions with all kinds of weapons.
Last Friday, the rebels launched the first offensive to break Aleppo siege, firing hundreds of mortar shells and grad rockets, and killing over 82 civilians, according to SANA.
The rebels also fired rockets with chemical gas on Menyan earlier this week, causing many people with suffocation, before repeating the attack on Thursday.
The Syrian army has laid siege on rebel-held areas in Aleppo in recent months, urging the rebels to surrender themselves or leave eastern Aleppo to other rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.
But the rebels didn't comply and went on several attacks to wobble the government siege.
Observers believe that Aleppo is going to be the decisive battle ground among the fighting groups, and the winner will be the one dictating its conditions to resolve the crisis, as the province contains all the groups that are supported by regional and international powers, with the civilians paying the price for this proxy war.
