U.S.-backed Syrian forces
edged closer to an Islamic State stronghold on the border with Turkey on
Saturday while Russia's defense minister visited President Bashar al Assad to
discuss military operations.
The
visit came only hours after the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed militias,
which have been supported by Russian air power, lost
several villages to Islamist rebels as they made significant advances in the countryside
south of Aleppo.
The
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel capture of three
villages from government control - Zeitan, Khalsa and Barna - had caused
significant losses among government forces and their allies.
The
villages lie in an strategic area near a main highway that links Aleppo with
the capital Damascus. Government forces captured the area at the end of last
year in a major offensive, assisted by Iranian-backed militias and Russian
jets.
State
media said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited an airbase in the
coastal Latakia province on Saturday after his talks with Assad in Damascus.
Russia's
military intervention in Syria in September helped turn the tide in Assad's
favor after months of gains in western Syria by rebel fighters, who were aided
by foreign military supplies, including U.S.-made anti-tank missiles.
Russia,
which has been bombing opposition-held areas, is blamed by the opposition and
rights activists for causing hundreds of civilian deaths and targeting
hospitals, schools and infrastructure in what they say are indiscriminate
attacks.
An
escalation in Russian and Syrian air and artillery strikes in recent weeks
around a highway to rebel held parts of the northern city of Aleppo has made
the road virtually impassable, putting hundreds of thousands of people under
siege and worsening their humanitarian plight.
A 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo announced by Russia
on Thursday has had little impact on fighting, and air strikes and shelling
have continued in and around the city.
At
least seven people died in rebel shelling of a neighborhood of Aleppo held by
the Kurdish YPG militia at dawn on Saturday, the Observatory said.
Syrian
helicopters also threw barrel bombs on several residential areas in opposition-held
quarters.
CLOSE
TO MANBIJ
Hundreds
of people have been killed in Aleppo since peace talks broke off in April, as
President Assad seeks to regain control of what was Syria's largest pre-war
city, now split between rebel and government sectors.
Washington
and some other Western countries that have called on Assad to step down accuse
Russia of focusing mostly on strikes against the moderate so-called Free Syrian
Army (FSA), and less on attacking hardline Islamic State militants.
On
the border with Turkey, U.S.-backed Syrian forces fought to the western
entrance of Manbij city for the first time since a major offensive to seize the
last territory held by Islamic State militants on the frontier, a source in the
Syrian group said on Saturday.
The
source from the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance - which includes the
powerful Kurdish YPG militia, Arab fighters and is being helped by scores of
U.S. special forces - told Reuters its troops were now almost two km from the
city center.
Since
the start of the offensive on May 31, the SDF has taken dozens of villages and
farms around Manbij but has held back from entering the city with many
thousands of people still trapped there. [L8N1961B1]
The
SDF is one of a number of sides fighting in Syria's complex civil war which has
pitted rebels against Assad and is now in its sixth year.
The
Observatory, which tracks violence across Syria, confirmed heavy fighting broke
out for the first time on the edge of the city, adding that the militants had
rammed a suicide vehicle into an SDF outpost but gave no details.
Syrian
government forces and some rebel groups are also fighting separate battles
against Islamic State. The SDF has largely avoided fighting government forces
and focuses on battling the hardline militants.
Representative
Image
Source: Reuters
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