Over the past few hours, the Syrian Arab Army has managed to wrestle the village of Jubb al-Kalb from ISIS militants in eastern Aleppo. Furthermore, government troops (mainly Tiger Force’s Team 6) also liberated the nearby village of al-Sin during the afternoon. This push forward comes on top of a ten day full-blown government offensive launched from Kuweiris Airbase towards Aleppo city which has forced ISIS fighters to give up 11 villages to the Syrian Arab Army in eastern Aleppo. Currently, some 13 kilometers of ISIS controlled territory separates government troops from reaching Sheikh Najjar Industrial District of Aleppo City; however, the vast majority of this countryside is made up of farms and fields.
In November of 2015, government troops finally managed to break the 3-year long ISIS siege imposed on Kuweiris Airbase. While most MENA analysts expected the Syrian Arab Army to halt upon this achievement, government soldiers have since expanded both east, north and most recently west of the strategic Kuweiris Airbase. These advances are largely due to the presence of Tiger Forces. This elite branch of the Syrian Arab Army specializes in offensive warfare and therefore their continued presence hints at further regional offensives to come. Contrary to the Tiger Forces, the Syrian Republican Guard and National Defense Forces are trained for defensive battles – for instance, this explains their deployment to Deir Ezzor.
Since the Russian Airforce was granted the green light to aid the Syrian Government as of late September of 2015, the Syrian Arab Army has achieved a string of successes in the countryside of Aleppo. For example, the Syrian Arab Army has captured a huge area in southern Aleppo from Jaish al-Fateh fighters as depicted in this map timeline. Also, earlier today, government troops finally managed to break a 3½ year siege on the Shiite towns of Nubl and al-Zahraa in northern Aleppo. When one adds today’s SAA advances in eastern Aleppo, the government has virtually doubled the Aleppo territory under its control compared to 4 months ago.
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