Syria fighting heats up in Aleppo, Idlib

Syrian government forces and rebel groups fought fierce battles Sunday in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib with each side seizing territory as U.N. envoys continued their efforts to build support for “freezing” fighting in the former northern metropolis of Aleppo, The Daily Star reported.

Syrian army troops and their paramilitary allies pressed forward with their campaign to grab territory overlooking the rebels’ main supply line between Aleppo and the Turkish border, to enforce a blockade on the northern city.

They seized ground in the strategic Mallah area north of Aleppo and killed 34 rebels and jihadis in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime group based in Britain.

The army troops were backed by local paramilitaries from the National Defense force, along with fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Shiite militiamen from Iran and Afghanistan, and a Palestinian paramilitary group, the Observatory said.

A local, anti-regime activist group, the Aleppo Media Center, said the rebels managed to retake some of the positions by the end of the day. It said the regime troops fanned out from the nearby area of Handarat late Saturday in preparation for Sunday’s offensive.

The AMC and other pro-opposition sources said the rebels destroyed at least one tank during the clashes, which also resulted in an unspecified number of casualties and prisoners from the regime’s forces.

Two civilian “media activists” were killed covering the fighting, the AMC said.