Rebels, Assad's forces await more heated battles after 'prison break'

Reporting by Ahmed Al Hajji

ALEPPO (Zaman Alwasl)- Fierce clashes still taking place in Aleppo province on Friday between Bashar al-Assad’s troops backed by Shiite militias and al Qaeda fighters and other Islamist brigades, a day after breaking a year-long rebel siege on Aleppo's main prison.

The heavy fighting intensified in Sheikh Najjar district and the neighboring areas of the central prison like al-Braij and the industrial city.

A military source affirmed to Zaman Alwasl that the strategic village of Hailan still under rebels’ control which turned to be a military foretop.

The source predicts a change in war balance very soon to the rebels’ favor if rebels can cut off the supplies routes of Assad’s forces, saying more heated battles are waiting both sides.

On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that troops have entered Aleppo prison.

Zaman Alwasl source said that al-Quds, the powerful Iranian Militia, was taking the lead in the in the storming operation of Aleppo prison.

Al Alam (En: The world), an Iranian satellite channel was the first media outlet to report from the prison showing militants of al-Quds brigade including its leader Mohamed Said with  the channel reporter.

State media did not report on the fighting around the prison on Thursday, but earlier said Assad's forces had captured the town of Hailan next to the prison, about 5 miles northeast of Aleppo city.

Assad's forces and rebels have been fighting for two years in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the start of the three-year civil war, and the countryside around it.

Rebels, including fighters from al Qaeda's Nusra Front, have tried repeatedly to storm the prison and free its inmates, bombing and breaching its outer walls but failing to take full control. The complex holds around 3,000 prisoners.

The recapture of the prison and its surroundings means that Assad's forces have control over the north-east approach to Aleppo, the Observatory's Rami Abdulrahman said.

The Britain-based, anti-Assad Observatory, which monitors the violence in Syria through a network of activists and medical and military sources, says more than 162,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which grew out of protests against Assad's rule. With Reuters