Assad regime regains control of Syria airport from Daesh

The Syrian Assad regime’s army has taken full control of a small airbase in the eastern Aleppo countryside that was under Daesh militant control, aided by heavy aerial bombing by Russian and Syrian air forces, pro-state media and an army source said earlier today.

The Al-Jarrah airport is located in the ultra-hardline militants’ remaining enclave in eastern Aleppo countryside, a region where they have mostly lost control to competing forces ranging from the Syrian Assad regime’s army and allied Shia jihadists, US-backed Kurdish-led forces to Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition forces.

The airport was briefly stormed by the army’s elite forces last March, but the militants repelled that attack on the base they had held since 2014.

Russian and Syrian jets have also intensified their attacks on the town of Maskaneh, the last main town in the region west of the Euphrates River in eastern Aleppo countryside, former residents in touch with relatives said.

Dozens of civilians have been killed since last week in the aerial bombing of the remaining villages and towns in the area still in the control of the militants, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.