Syrian Army Regains Full Control in Aleppo, Discovers Mass Grave

The Syrian army announced yesterday that it had regained control over dozens of villages and towns in the western and northwestern countryside of Aleppo, indicating its to-be-continued progress on ground.

The General Command of the Army said in a statement that in a relatively short time, the army could get full control of dozens of villages in Aleppo, most notably Huritan, Andan, and Kafr Hamra, as well as a large number of residential blocks, factories, pisions, and ruling hills, in addition to opening crossings ( Miznar and Majjirz) in the western countryside of Aleppo and the city of Saraqib.

The statement confirmed the army's continued progress in the field, and "its insistence on pursuing its tasks in eliminating the remaining terrorist organizations wherever they are found along the Syrian territory."

The progress of the Syrian forces comes after they successfully expelled the opposition militants from the main M5 highway linking Aleppo with the capital, Damascus, which reopened the fastest route between the two largest Syrian cities for the first time in years in a major strategic achievement. Official media said that the international route will be ready for civilian use within days.

The Syrian army's field successes have angered Turkey, which supports the armed factions in northwestern Syria, and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, earlier threatened the Syrian army if it doesn't withdraw from the observation posts that Ankara established over Syrian soil, in its support for the armed factions in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib.

At the same time, the Syrian army forces targeted a Turkish observation post stationed in Sheikh Aqil area, north of Aleppo, with a number of artillery shells. On its part, the Turkish artillery located in the rest of the countryside of Aleppo responded to the source of the fire.

Turkey has sent thousands of soldiers and hundreds of convoys of military hardware to reinforce the observation posts it set up in Idlib under an agreement with Russia in 2018 to reduce the escalation.

Turkey and Russia are due to hold a new round of talks in Moscow within hours. Hours before the start of the discussions, US President Donald Trump expressed his concern over the developments in Idlib and Moscow's support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

[caption id="attachment_110462" align="aligncenter" width="375"] Bodies discovered in the mass grave in Eastern Ghouta, Syria[/caption]

In another context, the Syrian army found a mass grave containing 70 bodies of civilians and military personnel, whose hands were tied, who were executed by terrorist groups in the city of Douma, Eastern Ghouta.

On the other hand, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that a car bomb attack carried out by the Kurdish People's Protection Units killed two people and wounded five others in the city of Tal Abyad in northeastern Syria, near the Turkish border. Ankara launched a military aggression on Syrian soil in October, targeting Kurdish forces and forcing them to withdraw from the border strip.