Syria Forces Recapture Strategic Region in Aleppo
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syrian government forces, backed by allied militants from popular defense groups, managed to establish full control over a strategic region in the southern countryside of the country’s northern province of Aleppo from the al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Local sources, requesting anonymity, said that Syrian troops and their allies captured al-Humayra on Friday after “intense battles” with the foreign-sponsored extremists, adding that the army inflicted heavy losses on the Takfiri elements in terms of their personnel and equipment.
Humayra had been under the control of Takfiri terrorists since 2016.
Syrian army units also liberated the villages Zitan and Barnah following fierce clashes with members of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as Nusra Front) terrorist group.
Moreover, Syrian government forces and their allies pressed ahead with their counter-terrorism operations against militant positions elsewhere in Aleppo province, and dealt heavy blows to them.
Later in the day, they could retake al-Eis town in southern Aleppo, and targeted militants and their fortifications on the outskirts of Aleppo-Hama international highway, Press TV reported.
Separately, Syrian army units foiled an attacked by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham terrorist on the road linking newly-liberated village of Zitan to Khalsa village in southwestern Aleppo.
Government soldiers also launched barrages of rockets and artillery rounds at militant positions in al-Rashideen 4 district as well as the towns of Kafr Naya and Khan al-Asal.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates wrote to the United Nations on January 25, stressing that the operation in Idlib and Aleppo against Takfiri elements "will not stop until the elimination of those terrorists, who threaten safety and security of Syrian civilians."
The Syrian army declared the start of an offensive against foreign-sponsored militants in Idlib on August 5 last year.
It came after those positioned in the de-escalation zone failed to honor a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey and continued to target civilian neighborhoods.
Under the Sochi agreement, all militants in the demilitarized zone that surrounds Idlib, and also parts of the provinces of Aleppo and west-central province of Hama, were supposed to pull out heavy arms by October 17 2018, with the Takfiri groups having to withdraw two days earlier.