Syria in Last 24 Hours:

Army Prepares for Massive Military Operation in Southern Aleppo City

Rasa - The Syrian army is preparing to launch a large-scale military operation in the Southern part of Aleppo as more troops and equipment have been dispatched to the region.

News ID: 426104

Date: 28 December 2016 - 22:03

RNA - Meantime, the Syrian army and popular forces continued their military advances in other parts of Syria, including Homs and Damascus, over the past 24 hours.

Tens of terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured during the Syrian army's operations in Syria's key provinces.

Aleppo

The Syrian Army dispatched more forces and equipment to different flanks South of Aleppo city, readying for an imminent large-scale operation against Jeish al-Fatah coalition of terrorist groups in the region.

A large number army soldiers, fresh fighters of Iraqi al-Nujaba movement and the Palestinian Liwa al-Quds along with tens of tanks, heavy artillery units and missile launchers were forwarded to the town of al-Hadhar and surrounding areas of the villages of Khalasa, al-Qarasi and al-Arabaeeneh hills to take part in an imminent operation against Jeish al-Fatah.

The Syrian army has also dispatched hundreds of fresh forces to the Southwestern countryside of Aleppo city to take back al-Rasheddeen 4 and 5.

The army gave its final ultimatum to the terrorists still remaining in the Southwestern regions of Aleppo and urged them to leave these regions.

The army gave the terrorists a three-day-long ultimatum starting on Monday to fully surrender areas under their control and leave the region.

Syrian Army General Staff warned Jeish al-Fatah coalition of terrorist groups deployed in the neighborhoods of Rashedeen 4 and 5 to hand these neighborhoods over to the Syrian government in next 72 hours, according to the source.

The army is about to run a clean-up operation in the Southwestern countryside of Aleppo city after the government forces' recent victories in the Eastern districts of the city and repelling two large-scale operation of militants several days before the full liberation of Aleppo city.

Homs

Syrian Army soldiers engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL terrorists in Eastern Homs and meantime targeted positions of Fatah al-Sham Front (previously known as the al-Nusra Front) in Northern Homs, inflicting a large number of casualties on the militants.

The army men stormed ISIL's gatherings in the villages of Habreh al-Sharqi, Habreh al-Qarbi, Rasm Hamideh, Jubb Habal, Abu Qatour, Unq al-Hawa, Abu Hawadid, Jubb Hamad and Sharifeh, killing or wounding a large number of militants.

In the meantime, the army troops targeted a gathering of Fatah al-Sham's commanders near al-Rastan town, killing and wounding several commanders.

Damascus

The Syrian Army troops are about to start a fresh round of large-scale operation in Wadi al-Bardi in Western Damascus in coming hours after terrorists refused to join peace talks with the government, field reports said on Tuesday.

According to reports, terrorists' movements in Wadi al-Bardi have been increased and in return the army is preparing to carry out a vast operation to purge the militants from the region.

The army's artillery units have started shelling terrorists' centers in Wadi al-Bardi in Northwestern Damascus.

In the meantime, missile units and army aircraft have been pounding terrorists' positions.

Clashes in the regions of Souq Wadi al-Bardi, Ein al-Fijeh and al-Hosseiniyeh are underway simultaneous with artillery and missile shelling.

Wadi al-Bardi is a region that overlooks Western mountain of al-Qalamoun region and is located almost 20 kilometers to Damascus. Al-Qalamoun chain mountains have laid along joint border of Syria and Lebanon from where the terrorists were previously penetrating into Syria's soil form Lebanon, smuggling weapons.

Wadi al-Bardi is of strategic importance because it is home to a large volume of drinking water reservoir.

Meantime, informed sources said Tuesday that continued peace talks between the Syrian government and militants in the Western Ghouta and the army's advances against terrorists groups in the region are paving the ground for the restoration of full security to areas West of Damascus province.

Idlib

Field sources in Syria reported that a group affiliated to al-Nusra Front (recently renamed to Fatah al-Sham Front) in the Southern parts of Idlib has killed two ringleaders of the 'Idlib Free Army' in Ma'rat Harama village.

"A security unit of al-Nusra Front attacked the headquarters of the Idlib Free Army and fled the scene after killing two field commanders of the group, namely Younis Zariq and Ahmad al-Khatib," the sources said on Tuesday.

According to the sources, another group also attacked an outpost set up by Ahrar al-Sham militants in al-Habit village in Southern Idlib and killed three members of the terrorist group.

Sweida

The Syrian army soldiers warded off a large-scale attack of the ISIL terrorists Northeast of Sweida province, inflicting heavy casualties on the militants.

The army men engaged in fierce clashes with a large group of ISIL terrorists that attacked government positions in a region East of Sa'ad-al-Qasr road to advance towards Tal Banat Ba'eir.

The army soldiers inflicted a large number of casualties on the militants and repelled their attack.

In the meantime, the army troops targeted a gathering of ISIL terrorists in the village of al-Qasr and killed a number of them.

Dara'a

Commander of Umat al-Towhid Brigade and over 500 of his forces laid down arms and joined the nationwide peace agreement with the Syrian government in the Southern province of Dara'a.

Thaer al-Akta'a and over five hundred of his forces handed over their weapons and equipment to the Syrian army and surrendered themselves to the relevant officials in the town of al-Sanmin.

The commander and his forces, who had previously called for amnesty, were granted government pardoning.

The Arabic language al-Hadath news website reported that terrorist groups' websites tried to ditch this report, while informed sources underlined that al-Akta'a handed over 150 personal arms to Supreme Military Council in addition to his own gun.

Raqqa

The predominately Kurdish 'Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) continued their advances against ISIL terrorists West of Raqqa city, capturing one more village and killing a number of terrorists.

The Kurdish fighters engaged in several-hour-long battle with ISIL and pushed them back from the village of Ja'abar al-Qarbi.

In the meantime, the SDF combatants repelled ISIL's attack on its positions in the newly-captured village of Ja'abar al-Sharqi, killing 18 militants.

In the meantime, senior commander of ISIL in the Northern side of al-Tabaq town known as Abu Jandal al-Kuweiti was killed in clashes with SDF.

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