The Free Syrian Army fighters captured three new villages near Albab northeast of Aleppo on Tuesday. These gains, which are part of the Shield of the Euphrates offensive, brought the FSA fighters closer to the ISIS-held strategic town of Albab.
Local activists said that the FSA fighters captured the villages of Tal Battal, Sheikh Jarrah, and Shbeiran from ISIS, killing at least 12 militants of the extremist group and destroying two truck bombs. Seven FSA fighters were wounded in the clashes with ISIS.
In northwestern rural Hama, meanwhile, a commander in the FSA-affiliated Jaish Alizza said that they targeted a meeting of Russian army officers in the town of Suqeilbiya on Tuesday.
Director of Jaish Alfateh’s media office Obada Alhamawi said that they hit with Grad rockets the Military Security branch in Suqeilbiya, where the Russian officers were holding a meeting. The FSA shelling left a number of officers killed and injured. Four pro-regime militants and a Russian officer were reportedly killed in shelling by the FSA on regime positions in the town of Souran in late October.
The Syrian Coalition commended the gains made by the FSA and rebel fighters trying to oust ISIS from rural Aleppo, calling on all the Free Syrian Army and rebel groups to unite under one national project.
The Coalition pointed out that the FSA and rebel fighters in Aleppo are fighting a battle of self-defense against regime forces and their allied Iranian-backed militias, stressing that the Syrian people will continue the fight to ward off the Russian blatant aggression on Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)