(Zaman Al Wasl)- Two civilians have been killed Wednesday in airstrikes on the western region of Aleppo province as Russian-backed regime forces make rapid gains in the last rebel stronghold in northern Syria.
The heavy aerial bombing targeted most of the western and southern countryside of Aleppo.
The National Liberation Front clashed early Wednesday with regime forces and allied militias at the front of Jabal Shweihna, killing dozen and destroying a tank, according to Zaman al-Wasl reporter.
Aleppo offensive is due to escalate after regime troops took Maaret al-Numan, a key rebel-held town in the country's northwest on Wednesday, activists say.
The regime forces have been on the offensive for more than a month in northwestern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the country. But in recent days, the government captured more than a dozen villages in the area as the insurgents' defenses began to crumble. Al-Qaida linked rebels control much of Idlib province and small parts of the adjacent area in Aleppo.
The push into Maaret al-Numan came as regime forces were also advancing against rebels west of the city of Aleppo, according to state media and opposition activists.
According to Syria's Response Coordination Group, 39,377 displaced people have headed to areas near the Turkish border due to the attacks that violate a cease-fire agreement between Turkey and Russia.
Mohammad Hallaj, the director of the group, told Anadolu Agency that the civilians left their homes in Idlib province's Saraqib city, Ariha town and Mt. Zawiya area.
Approximately 541,000 civilians have been displaced from the settlements of Idlib’s southern, southeastern, and Aleppo’s western and southern rural areas since Nov. 2019.
Nearly half a million people have been killed and millions displaced in Syria's long-running civil war, which erupted in 2011 in the form of anti-government protests amid Arab Spring uprisings and eventually turned into an armed insurgency.
Zaman Al Wasl
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