Syria military hails its advance against rebels
DAMASCUS, SYRIA >> Syria praised its troops Monday for rapidly taking over rebel-controlled territory in the country’s northwest, vowing to continue to chase armed groups “wherever they are.”
Separately, state media reported that Syrian authorities had uncovered the previous day a mass grave containing nearly 70 bodies in eastern Ghouta, an area outside of the capital that rebel fighters lost control of in April 2018.
The ongoing military advance in northwest Syria came hours after troops consolidated the government’s hold over the key Aleppo province, capturing over 30 villages and hamlets in the western countryside in a single day and securing the provincial capital that had for years remained within range of opposition fire.
Since December, Syrian troops have been on the offensive in the area and the nearby Idlib province, biting bit by bit at the crowded rebel enclave, home to over 3 million people. The offensive displaced more than 800,000 people, sparking one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the nineyear war.
Troops were removing barriers and roadblocks on Monday in villages and districts that were earlier controlled by Syrian rebels, state TV reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, reported clashes in Jabal Sheik Akeel, northwest of the city of Aleppo, the provincial capital.
Rescuers and a medical aid worker said airstrikes Monday on Darat Izza, a town still in opposition hands in northwestern Aleppo, put two health facilities out of service. One hospital was directly hit, wounding two staffers, said Mazen Kewara of the Syrian American Medical Society, a group that supports the hospital’s dialysis unit. Footage from the rescue team, Syrian Civil
Defense, showed extensive damage. Another airstrike hit close by the other medical facility, some 150 meters (yards) away.
Syrian rebels were driven out of Aleppo city’s eastern quarters in late 2016, which they had controlled for years while battling government forces in charge in the western section. However, rebel groups continued to target government forces from outside the city with mortar rounds. They also controlled large parts of western rural Aleppo, territories that linked them to Idlib province, the opposition’s last major stronghold.
The new advances, along with securing a key highway that ran through rebel territory, are set to facilitate movement between northern and southern Syria, including the city of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial center before the war.
The developments sparked late night celebrations in the city, with state media showing images of residents waving flags and dancing in the streets packed with vehicles.