said.
The push
came a month after insurgents captured several military academies south of
Aleppo and opened a corridor into rebel-held parts of Syria's largest city and
onetime commercial center. Since then, government forces and their allies have
been trying to recapture the area.
State news
agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops have
captured the Armament Academy and are "continuing their advance in the
area to impose almost a total siege on the gunmen in Aleppo."
The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that government
troops captured the academy, adding that insurgents have launched a
counteroffensive.
Al-Manar TV,
which is run by Lebanon's Hezbollah group, said troops are now pushing toward
the nearby Artillery Academy. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria
to bolster President Bashar Assad's forces.
To the north
of Aleppo, fighting between Turkish-backed rebels and the Islamic State group
intensified Sunday near the rebel-held town of al-Rai, near the Turkish border.
Turkey sent
tanks into al-Rai on Saturday in what it said was a "new phase" in an
operation to drive IS away from the border. Al-Rai is 34 miles west of
Jarablus, a border town seized by Turkey-backed Syrian rebels last week. The
Turkey-backed forces are now advancing toward each other from both towns,
hoping to close off the last stretch of the Syrian border ruled by the extremists.
The
Observatory said IS still controls four border villages, adding that once they
are taken it will cut the extremist group's last "link with the outside
world."
The
Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another Syrian monitoring group,
said an IS suicide attacker riding a motorcycle struck in the northern village
of Khalfatli, killing and wounding a number of people, including rebels. The
Observatory said the blast killed 14 people, including 11 rebels.
The LCC said
Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels captured the village of Tweiran, to the
south of al-Rai, from IS on Sunday. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said
19 Syrian rebels wounded in clashes with IS since Saturday have been
hospitalized in Turkey.
Turkish
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim defended his country's intervention in
neighboring Syria, pointing to their long shared border.
"We are
there to protect our borders, ensure the safety of our citizens' lives and
property, and to protect the territorial integrity of Syria," Yildirim
said during a visit to the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
"We
will never allow an artificial state in Syria's north," he said,
apparently referring to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, who have taken a large
swath of territory from IS along the border. Turkey views the Kurds as a threat
and the Turkey-backed forces have clashed with them outside Jarablus.
In a press
statement late Saturday, Turkey's military said the FSA took control of 10
villages from IS, adding that the Turkish army struck 20 IS targets. Since the
Turkish operation began on Aug. 24, the army says it has hit 300 targets with
1,306 rounds.
SANA later
reported that Assad received a British delegation on Sunday including members
of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. SANA said they discussed
Syria's war and ways of fighting terrorism.
SOURCE: FOX NEWS
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