Syrian army liberates two more areas in troubled Aleppo

Syrian government forces have managed to liberate two more areas in Aleppo from the clutches of foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants as they are trying to flush the extremists out of the strategic northwestern city.

A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the official SANA news agency that army units wrested full control over a number of buildings in the al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo, located some 355 kilometers north of the capital Damascus, on Thursday after clearing the last pockets of terrorists in the area.

The source added that the government forces also retook al-Bureij region in northern Aleppo, leaving a large number of terrorists killed and injured.

Elsewhere in the southwestern province of Dara’a, Syrian army units and fighters from allied popular defense groups targeted the positions of the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in the Dara’a al-Balad district of the provincial capital Dara’a, located about 90 kilometers south of Damascus, as well as al-Naimah village, killing and injuring scores of the Takfiris.

Syrian army soldiers and their allies also struck hideouts belonging to Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorists on the outskirts of Shaer and Jazal areas in the central province of Homs, destroying several arms depots and vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns.

Militant rocket fire kills eight Syrian civilians

In another development on Thursday, at least eight civilians, including two women and a child, lost their lives and nearly five dozen others sustained injuries in rocket attacks by foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants against two residential districts in Aleppo.

An unnamed source at the Aleppo Police Command said eight people were killed and more than 55 others, most of them children and women, were injured when four rockets fired by Takfiri terrorists struck the al-Jamilia neighborhood of the city.

The source added that the projectiles also caused substantial damage to public properties and several houses in the targeted area.

Separately, three people were injured when a rocket struck al-Kallasa Street in Aleppo’s al-Sulaymaniyah neighborhood.

The conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.