Syrian government troops backed by Russian airstrikes yesterday recaptured a town in Aleppo Province from Islamic State militants, in a key advance just two days ahead of a US and Russia-engineered ceasefire that is to take effect in Syria.
The town of Khanaser was seized earlier this week by the Islamic State group, cutting government military access to the provincial capital, also called Aleppo, said the Syrian government and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group.
The Syrian Arab News Agency said the army took Khanaser, about 50km southeast of Aleppo City, after three days of heavy battles and that heavy fighting was still underway to reopen the road. On Tuesday, militants seized Khanaser and surrounding hills, severing the government’s main land route to the city. In the push on Khanaser, the Syrian army and pro-government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes, the Observatory said.
The advance comes ahead of a ceasefire meant to start at midnight today. The Islamic State group and al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, are not included in the proposed truce.
The ceasefire is aimed at achieving a temporary “cessation of hostilities” that would bring back the Syrian government and its opponents to the negotiating table in Geneva.
The Syrian opposition has agreed to abide by the truce, but expressed major concerns and reservations about what it said were ambiguities and the lack of any clear mechanism to implement the agreement.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday echoed those concerns, saying he was worried that Russia would continue to hit Syrian civilians or the moderate opposition during the truce. Davutoglu has accused Russia of striking the moderate opposition in Syria in the past five months under the guise of hitting militants.
He said the truce would have “no meaning if Russia continues with its irresponsible bombings.”
A key element of the ceasefire deal is humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria. The UN on Wednesday announced the first high-altitude airdrop of 21 tonnes of aid over the city of Deir el-Zour, which is under siege from Islamic State extremists. However, the World Food Programme said later it faced “technical difficulties” and indicated the drop might have been off target.
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