Jihadists and rebels captured strategic military positions on the edges of Syria’s second city Aleppo on Saturday, turning the tables on Russian-backed regime forces besieging the city.
To the northeast, a Western-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters scored a major victory against the Islamic State (IS) group in the town of Manbij after a fierce two-month battle.
On Saturday, opposition fighters and allied jihadists captured territory south of Aleppo in a bid to cut off regime forces and open up a new route into besieged rebel-held districts.
“The Army of Conquest... took control of the armament school, where there is a large amount of ammunitions, and a large part of the artillery school” at a military academy, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Setback to regime The coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists “is about to cut off, by gunfire, the supply route into government-controlled districts”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
That road passes through a southwestern suburb of Ramussa and is the last route into Aleppo used by regime troops.
Opposition forces — encircled by the government since July 17 — are hoping to expand their control in the area and use that route themselves.
The former al-Nusra Front — renamed Jabhat Fateh al-Sham after breaking from al-Qaeda — on Saturday announced having captured the two military academies and a third military position.
Also on Saturday, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces handed a major defeat to Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in the town of Manbij.
The Britain-based Observatory said the SDF “took control of Manbij... and are combing the city in search of the last remaining jihadists”.
The town had served as a key transit point along IS’s supply route from the Turkish border to Raqqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled “caliphate”.
