Mennegh Airport fully liberated by rebels after eight month siege

  Mennegh Military Airport has been fully liberated by rebels after an eight-month siege

The liberation battle started on Monday with 2 suicide bombers carried with him six tons of explosives in an armored vehicle and detonated it at the entrance of the air base, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Activists reported that 'the Islamic State of Iraq and sham' and other rebel groups had taken almost full control of the military air base.

 ''The ISIS and its allies destroyed 4 tanks, took over several buildings and have taken captive several officers and regular soldiers,'' the observatory said.

 Clashes took place inside the airport, causing losses on both sides, and ended with the near full control of the rebels over Mennegh, activists reported.

Mennegh Airport considered as a key supply route north of the city of Aleppo.

The reported capture of the Mennegh Military Airport, situated on the road between Aleppo and the Turkish city of Gaziantep, after an eight-month siege, marks an important symbolic victory for the opposition, following a string of defeats to President Bashar al-Assad's forces in central Syria, the Telegraph said.

"The airport has been fully liberated. The remnants of the Assad gangs are now being chased," said a statement issued by nine brigades that took part in the operation, including the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and the hardline Islamist Tawhid Brigades.

Assad's forces tried last month to prevent the fall of the airport by launching an armoured offensive from Aleppo, backed by Hezbollah guerrillas based in two Shiite villages near the city, to drive the rebels from the northern rural region, according to opposition sources in the north.

Meanwhile, More than 150,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.'s recent estimate.