US-backed forces advance on IS in Syria

BEIRUT/AMMAN—US-backed Syrian forces edged closer to an Islamic State (IS) stronghold on the border with Turkey on Saturday while Russia’s defense minister visited President Bashar al-Assad to discuss military operations.

The visit came only hours after the Syrian Army and its Iranian-backed militias, which have been supported by Russian airpower, lost several villages to IS rebels as they made significant advances in the countryside south of Aleppo.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel capture of three villages from government control —Zeitan, Khalsa and Barna— had caused significant losses among government forces.

The villages lie in a strategic area near a main highway that links Aleppo with the capital Damascus. Government forces captured the area at the end of last year in a major offensive, assisted by Iranian-backed militias and Russian jets.

State media said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited an air base in Latakia province on Saturday after his talks with Assad in Damascus.

Russia’s military intervention in Syria in September last year helped turn the tide in Assad’s favor after months of gains in western Syria by rebel fighters, who were aided by foreign military supplies, including USmade antitank missiles.

Russia, which has been bombing opposition-held areas, is blamed by the opposition and rights activists for causing hundreds of civilian deaths and targeting hospitals, schools and infrastructure in what they say are indiscriminate attacks.