BEIRUT: Syria regime forces on Sunday seized two new rebel-held districts in Aleppo a day after they retook the largest opposition-controlled neighborhood in the second city, a monitor said.
“The army and its allies retook control of Jabal Badro and Baadeen”, both adjacent to Masaken Hanano which was retaken on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In less than 24 hours, the regime has seized three districts from the rebels just 13 days into an assault to retake the entire northern city.
East Aleppo has been under rebel control since 2012.
“The army’s rapid advance is due to its strategy of attacking east Aleppo on several fronts, weakening the rebels,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Meanwhile, fighting raged between regime forces and rebels in the strategic neighboring district of Sakhur, the Observatory said.
Sakhur lies on a stretch of just 1.5 km between west Aleppo and Masaken Hanano, now both controlled by the regime.
If the regime did manage to take control of the district, east Aleppo would be split in two from north to south, dealing a further blow to the armed opposition.
Syrian rebels handed in their heavy weapons in a town southwest of Damascus, on Sunday, as part of a deal they have made with the government to get safe passage to insurgent-controlled areas, state-affiliated media said.
Through a series of so-called “settlement” agreements and army offensives, the Syrian government, backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, has been steadily suppressing armed opposition to its rule in the capital city's suburbs.
Rebels say the deals are part of a strategy to forcibly displace whole populations from opposition-held areas after years of siege and bombardment.
Khan Al-Shih is the only town not controlled by the government on a major supply route from Damascus to government-held territory in the southern province of Quneitra.
The army will start the transfer of insurgents and their families from the town to rebel-held Idlib province on Monday, according to a statement from a military news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of Assad.
Syrian state-run Ikhbariya TV, broadcasting from near Khan Al-Shih on Sunday, said 1,270 people will be moved to Idlib in the coming week and the remaining 3,000-4,500 people will be taken back into government-controlled areas, citing sources within the local administration.
In another development, a blast ripped through a street in the northern Syrian town of Al-Rai on Sunday in what was believed to be a Daesh suicide bombing and 12 wounded, mostly children, were brought to a hospital in nearby Turkey, security and hospital sources said.
Turkey's army had earlier said Daesh militants fired a rocket into the Haliliye area of the same region that caused symptoms of “chemical gas” exposure in 22 Syrian rebels, according to Anadolu news agency.
The town of Al-Rai, which is 2 km south of Turkey's Kilis border province, is in an area under the control of Turkey-backed rebels and was seized from Daesh militants in Ankara's “Euphrates Shield” operation launched in August.
No further details were immediately available but the Dogan news agency cited local sources as saying it was a vehicle-borne bomb which also killed several Syrians.
The Turkey-backed rebels have for days been besieging the Daesh-controlled town of Al-Bab, around 30 km south of Al-Rai, as part of the three-month-old offensive to drive the hard-liners away from the Syrian side of the Turkish border.
Some 22 rebels were transferred to a Turkish hospital on suspicion of chemical poisoning after complaining of constant sickness and severe headaches following the attack in Haliliye, the Hurriyet website reported.
More from al-Manar: After Losing Masaken Hanano, Gunmen in East Aleppo Fear of Total Defeat
Syrian army and allies move on with their military operation against the strongholds of armed groups in east of Aleppo city, and managed on Sunday to seize full control over Masaken Hanano.
Masaken Hanano is the most important stronghold of the armed groups in the area and they used to take it as military barracks, making civilians a human shield and a cover to mask their most awful actions in the neighborhood.
Loosing Masaken Hanano, put the militants in a real crisis regarding the geographic location of the area, in addition to that it overlooks Haidariya neighborhood and tightens grip around the armed groups from the side of Al-Badro Mountain.
Moreover, in case the Syrian military and allied forces managed to continue advancing towards Al-Sakhoor neighborhood, this will divide the militants’ strongholds in east Aleppo into two parts (northern and southern) which will escalate the pressure over the armed groups there. That’s why the armed factions called for urgent crawl.
Militants’ call for help has been translated by “Noueddine Zinki Movement” by withdrawing its gunmen from the northern axes of eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo in an attempt to halt the advance of Syrian army and allies at Hanano-Badro axis, amid clear confusion among militants after they failed to fight off the advancing forces.
Worthy to note that the Syrian military and allies are taking into account the presence of civilians in the densely populated areas and taking the situational military measures in order to protect their lives.
More from al-Manar: Syrian Army Captures 8 Aleppo Districts
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Syrian government forces freed on Sunday eight districts in the east of the Aleppo city, evacuating 2,500 civilians, including 800 children, and forcing dozens of militants to surrender, as they are still advancing at three main axes.
“The Syrian army and allied forces are advancing at three fronts amid quick collapse of armed groups east of Aleppo,” AL-Manar TV reporter said.
The evacuated civilians include 500 people from the al-Qadisiyah district and about 1,500 people from the districts of Jabal Bidart and Hai es Sackur.
Evacuated civilians talked about major collapses in the ranks of the terrorists who have revengefully targeted the western region and some northern rural areas, which led to the fall of martyrs in the besieged towns of Nobbol and Zahra.
The situation in Aleppo has been seriously deteriorating over the recent months. Thousands of citizens are believed to be trapped in the terrorist-besieged eastern parts of Aleppo with no access to food or water.
More, this time from Al-Arabiya: Syrian forces retake largest Aleppo rebel area
Syrian government forces have retaken “full control” of the rebel-held district of Masaken Hanano in northern battlefield city Aleppo, state media said on Saturday.
State television said “the armed forces retook full control” of the largest rebel district in the east of the city, and official news agency SANA said operations were now under way to clear it of mines and bombs.
“The armed forces retook full control of Masaken Hanano after having put an end to the presence of terrorists there,” the state broadcaster said, referring to the rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
SANA said government forces, backed by its allies, also recaptured the area around the district and “army engineers are clearing it of bombs and explosives planted by the terrorists in the streets and squares.”
The capture of Masaken Hanano in the northeast of Aleppo could give the army line-of-fire control over several other parts of the city’s rebel-held east.
Regime forces had been advancing inside the neighborhood for several days, and on Friday state television said they were progressing “from three axes.”
The operation is part of a major offensive now in its 12th day to take back all of Aleppo, Syria’s second city and its economic capital before the war broke out in March 2011.
Since November 15, regime bombardment of eastern Aleppo has killed 212 civilians, including 27 children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Observatory head rami Abdel Rahman told AFP on Saturday that the government forces were in control of 80 percent of Masaken Hanano and had the rest in their line of fire.
“They just hundreds of metres (yards) away from isolating the northern districts of east Aleppo from the southern ones,” he said.
More than 250,000 civilians have been trapped under siege for months in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, with dwindling food and fuel supplies.
The battleground city in northern Syria has been divided between the government-controlled western areas and the rebel-held eastern districts since 2012. |
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] A hand grenade 
Casualties were reported as fierce fighting erupted on Friday in Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, after extremist militants opened fire on the joint Palestinian security force.