Assad regime takes 2 more Aleppo districts from rebels

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.

Source: Arab News