Aleppo International Airport. Photo: wiki commons.

Washington Post/AP – Government troops fought back rebels near the airport of battle-scarred Aleppo, Syria’s state media said Friday, in the first official acknowledgement combat had neared a strategic gateway to the country’s largest city.

As fighting raged in both Aleppo and the Syrian capital Damascus, the United Nations announced that Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and veteran U.N. diplomat, would serve as the world body’s new peace envoy, aiming to resume efforts for a diplomatic solution to what has become an intractable civil war.

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