Military showdown displaces hundreds of families in western Aleppo: watchdog

Hundreds of families evacuated their homes in the western countryside of Syria's northern province of Aleppo as a result of the military showdown there, a war monitor reported Saturday.

The displacement wave occurred in the past 72 hours, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a statement to the United Nations, accusing the rebel forces in the western countryside of Aleppo of intensifying mortar attacks on the residential areas in Aleppo, state-run SANA news agency reported.

The ministry also accused the rebels of preventing the civilians from leaving rebel-held areas in western Aleppo and the nearby province of Idlib through the three humanitarian corridors set up recently by the Syrian authorities and Russia.

The Syrian army has been targeting the rebel positions in western Aleppo in response to their shelling on residential areas, according to a previous report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.