Syrian forces brace for operation to retake key city

Government forces have started preparing for an operation to retake a key city from al-Qaida-linked militants, local media reported Thursday.

The preparations came amid slight advances by pro-government Palestinian factions inside the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus against Islamic State (IS) militants.

On Wednesday, government troops captured three villages, which were seized by al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front late March, on the outskirts of Idlib.

Idlib was the second provincial capital to fall out of government control after the IS group took the city of al-Raqqa in northern Syria two years ago.

The city was captured by the Nusra front and like-minded militant groups late March.

The seizure on Wednesday of the three villages, Kafr Najd, Nahlaya and Muqbileh, along a crucial route, would help government efforts to retake Idlib, Al-Watan newspaper said.

Dozens of Nusra militants were killed in the operation, which caused "panic" in the extremist group's ranks, the paper said.

Meanwhile, the paper, citing sources, denied reports that the only road connecting the northern city of Aleppo with central and southern Syria had been cut.

Reports about the IS capture of the towns of Khanaser and Qurbatiyeh, located between the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo, are not true, the paper said.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once the economic capital of Syria, has been carved out between the rebels, which control the eastern part and much of the countryside, and government forces, which control the western part.

Syrian officials have, over the past couple of days, been talking about "normal" life in government-controlled parts of Aleppo, following opposition allegations that the government was evacuating official institutions in anticipation of a major offensive by al-Qaida militants.

The opposition allegations came after the Nusra Front and allied militants attempted to storm the government-controlled district of Jamiyat al-Zahra, considered the entrance to the rest of the government-controlled districts.

State media said the attack was thwarted.

Fighting has also been continuing in other parts of the country.

In the southern edge of the capital Damascus, battles raged on all fronts in the Yarmouk Camp for Palestinian refugees, between the armed Palestinian factions, loyal to the government, and the IS group, which captured most of that sprawling district since the beginning of April.

The al-Watan paper said the Palestinian factions have advanced in recent hours, capturing the Rijeh Square, one of the main squares in the camp.

The factions, backed by government air power, also recaptured ten building blocks near the square, and that IS militants were fleeing like "rabbits," the paper quoted one Palestinian commander as saying.

On April 1, IS militants launched an attack on Yarmouk with the help of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, capturing most of that sprawling district, which is only 7 km from central Damascus.

Many have since fled Yarmouk, once home to 160,000 Palestinians and Syrians.