Syrian army seizes key Aleppo area from
rebels: Observatory
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[November 28, 2016]
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army
and its allies drove rebels from a strategically important area of
eastern Aleppo on Monday, the army and the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said, in an accelerating attack that threatens to crush the
opposition in Aleppo.
One rebel official denied the report that al-Sakhour had fallen, an
advance that would cut the rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo in
two, while another said the situation was not yet clear. The Observatory
said rebels had lost control of more than a third of eastern Aleppo in
recent days.
Citing a military source, Syrian state TV said the army and its allies
had seized the entire Sakhour area and were working to clear it of
mines. Backed by allied militiamen, the army has been advancing into
eastern Aleppo from the northeast since last week, making steady gains
over the weekend.
A fighter on the government side in Aleppo said the army and its allies
had now driven a wedge through eastern Aleppo, leaving a corridor for
rebels to quit the northern part for the south.
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"In the coming hours, the rest of the northern sector will be taken,"
the fighter told Reuters, declining to be identified because he is not
an official spokesman.
Capturing rebel-held eastern Aleppo would be the biggest victory for
President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the Syrian uprising in
2011. Aleppo is the most important urban stronghold of the uprising.
Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said government forces were now in
effective control of a swathe of eastern Aleppo stretching north from
the al-Sakhour neighborhood, having seized a third of eastern Aleppo in
recent days.
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![](../images/112816pics/news_o27.jpg)
Smoke rises after airstrikes on the rebel-held al-Sakhour
neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman
Ismail
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"It is the biggest defeat for the opposition in Aleppo since 2012,"
he told Reuters. Abdulrahman said the army and its allies were now
in control of an entire swathe of eastern Aleppo stretching north
from al-Sakhour.
Part of the northern area was seized by the Kurdish YPG militia,
which is hostile to the rebel groups in eastern Aleppo and advanced
into the rebel-held territory from the Kurdish-controlled Sheikh
Maqsoud district, Abdulrahman said.
Backed by the Russian air force, the Syrian army and its allies have
been gradually closing in on rebel-held eastern Aleppo this year,
besieging it before launching a fierce assault in September.
(Reportnig by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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