(Zaman Al Wasl- Reuters)- Top Syrian regime army commander has been killed in the ongoing clashes in northern Aleppo province, activists said.
M.General Mazhar Badie Zaher, head of the artillery and missiles directorate in Aleppo and the ground commander of Aleppo's onslaught, was killed near Nubl and Zahraa villages on Wednesday, supporters and relatives said.
Wasel is a fellow Bashar al-Assad's Alawite officer who was born in coastal province of Tartus.
The Levant Front rebel group said the breaking of the three-year-old siege of the two Shiite villages came only after more than 500 raids by Russian airplanes, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The villages of Nubl and Zahraa, with an estimated 60,000 population, are connected to the border by areas under the control of Kurdish militias that provided them some access.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian and Syrian warplanes launched dozens of strikes on the rebel towns of Hayan and Hreitan in northern Aleppo on Wednesday.
"Less than 3 km separate the regime from cutting all routes to opposition-held Aleppo," Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. "It did in three days what it failed to do in 3-1/2 years."
One rebel commander said opposition-held areas of the divided city were at risk of being encircled entirely by the regime and allied militia, and appealed to foreign states that back the rebels to send more weapons.
Russian media outlets have also reported death of Russian militants consultants in Aleppo battles.
In Latakia mountains, Turkmen rebels have targeted a meeting for Russian and Syrian army officers, killing number of them, including senior Russian officer, activists said.
Meanwhile, The United Nations envoy, Staffan de Mistura announced a three-week pause in the Geneva talks, the first attempt to negotiate an end to Syria's war in two years, saying they needed immediate help from the rival sides' international backers, principally the United States and Russia.
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.