Following the recapture of the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province on Tuesday, Syrian regime forces made new advances on Thursday in neighboring Aleppo province’s southeastern countryside. 

Syrian state media published images of their fighters in action and inspecting the newly-captured areas.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)  reported that the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) “made new advances in southern rural Aleppo, where they managed to capture the factory of bulgur and other positions in the vicinity of Khan Touman town, hours after capturing the town with heavy air and ground support and continued attempts and attacks [that] lasted for days.”

“Khan Touman town has a great strategic importance due to its location, close to the Damascus-Aleppo international highway and overlooking several areas and locations,” added the UK-based monitor group. 

Backed by the Russian air force, the SAA and its allied groups have intensified their attacks against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadists and other groups backed by Ankara that are present in the northwest of the country. 

These photographs, taken on Thursday in Tallet el Abyad area in Aleppo, show the SAA and its allies fighting against rebels and inspecting areas it re-controlled after losing them in the initial years of Syrian civil war. 

The clashes have fueled the displacement of  hundreds of thousands of more people to the Turkish border since the start of a new wave of regime offensives in December. 

Photos by AFP