In the past 24 hours, Turkish-backed rebel factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have captured seven fomerly ISIS-held villages in the countryside of northeastern Aleppo.

Thus, the FSA has imposed full control over the villages of Tall Aisha, Jubbayn, al-Burj, Bulaykhah, Tall Jurji, Ash Shuhuh and Maziji Ameriyah.

During clashes for the aforementioned villages, a FSA spokesman said 1 rebel fighter was killed and 8 more wounded. On the other hand, he claimed 24 ISIS militants were killed. The spokesman also stressed that the US-led coalition conducted seven airstrikes on Sunday in support of the rebel advance.

In total, Turkish-backed FSA factions have seized 1,370 square kilometers and 179 villages from ISIS in the northern parts of the Aleppo governorate in merely 75 days.

Remarkably, today’s rebel advance puts the FSA just 13 kilometers northwest of Al-Bab, the last major city in Aleppo province still under Islamic State control.

The Turkish-backed offensive, dubbed ‘Operation Euphrates Shield’ saw rebel forces funnelled across the border by Turkey in late August 2016 during a major military campaign which aimed at establishing a Turkish buffer-zone in Syria and saw rebel fighters clash with both ISIS and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Kurdish-led SDF remains hostile to the FSA and has also vowed to capture al-Bab in a military move that would connect two Kurdish-held enclaves in northern Syria. At the moment, the nearest SDF forward units are 15 kilometers west of Al-Bab.

Some rumours also suggest the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to be interested in mounting an offensive towards al-Bab. Due to a government offensive in eastern Aleppo last year, the SAA’s soldiers are only 11 kilometers south of Al-Bab.

ALSO READ  German ISIS member charged with torturing, killing prisoners in Syria
Advertisements
Share this article:
  • 138
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    138
    Shares
Chris Tomson
Student currently living in Denmark. Special focus on news from Syria, MENA map-making and strategical military analysis.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Notice: All comments represent the view of the commenter and not necessarily the views of AMN.

All comments that are not spam or wholly inappropriate are approved, we do not sort out opinions or points of view that are different from ours.

Be Civil

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

Make it better

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Now the hard part!

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.