The conflict between the Syrian government and rebels has intensified over the occupation of the outskirts of Aleppo. Russian fighter jets, along with the Syrian army, are continuously carrying out air strikes in the eastern area of Aleppo occupied by rebels. Meanwhile, jihadist fighters cut off the highway from Damascus to Aleppo on Thursday. About 200 people have been killed during this offensive operation. A monitor says that those who have lost their lives also include civilians killed in Russian air force attacks.
Jihadists suddenly attacked: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a day earlier, the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allied factions suddenly attacked government-controlled areas of northern Aleppo province. This started the most fierce fighting amid tensions.
182 dead so far: The monitor said the death toll in the ongoing fighting has risen to 182, including 102 HTS fighters, 19 from allied factions and 61 fighters from regime forces and allied groups.
So many people killed in Russian attack: 19 civilians were killed in Russian air strikes in the countryside of Aleppo on Thursday, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the monitor, said. He said another civilian was killed in Syrian army shelling a day earlier.
Russia is a close ally of the Syrian President: Russia is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and first intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015, turning the tide of the conflict in favor of the president, whose forces once controlled only a fifth of the country.
These routes were affected: The UK-based monitoring organization said that HTS and its allied factions, including groups backed by neighboring Turkey, cut off the Damascus-Aleppo international M5 highway. Apart from this, they have also taken control of the junction between the M4 and M5 highways.’
The monitoring organization, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said, ‘The highway has now been taken out of service after being reopened by the regime forces years ago. The junction of the M5 and M4 highways connects the capital and the regime’s coastal stronghold Latakia to the second city Aleppo respectively.’
More than 14 thousand people displaced: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that more than 14,000 people have been displaced due to violence, about half of whom are children. Syria has been in the grip of civil war for more than a decade, although the intensity of the conflict has decreased in recent years.
