Aleppo: Syrian opposition advance and kill Hezbollah fighters

Several armed Syrian factions have successfully managed to press their offensive on western Aleppo that began yesterday in a bid to break the siege on opposition-held eastern Aleppo, besieged by the Assad regime.

Al Jazeera reported the Al-Safwa Al-Islamiyya group as claiming that they had killed a “senior ranking officer” in the regime and four of his aides, as well as other groups claiming to have killed several Hezbollah operatives.

Jaysh Al-Fateh, another opposition group, said that they killed a Hezbollah commander going by the name of Al-Haj Kinan, while Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Lebanon said that the militant Shia group confirmed that four of their fighters were killed in the latest hostilities.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia organisation with strong ties to Iran, has been fighting on the side of President Bashar Al-Assad in a conflict that the UN has stated has claimed more than 400,000 lives.

An alliance of dozens of Syrian groups opposed to Al-Assad’s continuing rule have participated in the current offensive, attacking regime forces and allied Shia militias from several sectors in and around the city.

Jaysh Al-Fateh also announced that they have completely seized control of the Dahiyat Al-Assad neighbourhood that was formerly controlled by the regime, in an advance that is likely to worry Damascus.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists have reported rebel forces as successfully blocking a regime offensive against the village of Kafr Khashir, north of Aleppo.

This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin declared yesterday that the resumption of airstrikes in Aleppo was currently unnecessary. It is unclear whether opposition gains today will force Putin to reconsider that calculus.

The Syrian opposition have said that the current offensive is part of the larger operation to capture Aleppo, dubbing the clash “The Great Battle for Aleppo”. The Assad regime has been widely blamed for using chemical weapons against civilian targets, and has tried to conflate all rebel groups with Al-Qaeda or Daesh extremists.