Syria liberates Aleppo areas recently seized by militants: Monitor

Syrian troops have retaken all districts which were recently seized by foreign-sponsored terrorists in and around Aleppo during a much-hyped offensive, a London-based monitor says.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that the army had retaken key areas such as Aleppo’s western neighborhood of Dahiyat al-Assad and the village of Minian on the city’s outskirts.

Militants, including those from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham formerly known as al-Nusra Front, launched an offensive on October 28 in the face of gains on the ground made by the Syrian army soldiers.

A mix of militants belonging to Saudi, Turkish and US-backed Takfiri groups launched what they called a "big battle" with all the groups there participating. 

The offensive involved heavy shelling of government-held areas in Aleppo. According to the observatory, more than 450 people were killed, including 100 civilians, 215 terrorists and 143 government forces. 

Most of the civilians lost their lives in government-held western Aleppo, among them 29 children who were slain by waves of militant rocket fire.

Separately on Saturday, Russia expressed its readiness to agree to any fresh humanitarian pauses in Aleppo on condition that the UN formally guarantees to deliver aid to the city’s eastern areas.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said in a statement that the department “will be ready to consider introducing new 'humanitarian pauses' at any time as soon as representatives of the UN mission in Syria officially confirm their readiness and possibility to deliver humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo and to evacuate wounded and sick civilians.”

Moscow has introduced a series of unilateral truces in Aleppo to allow civilian and terrorists to quit the city’s eastern parts, including a 10-hour pause in fighting on November 4 and a three-day ceasefire in late October. It, however, argues that the cessation of hostilities had no tangible results as foreign-backed militants opened fire on people coming in or out of the city irrespective of the truces.

Aleppo has been divided over the past four years between Damascus forces in the west and terrorists in the east, making it a frontline battleground.

Backed by Russian air cover, the Syrian army launched operations to reunite the divided northwestern city in September.

Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies.

The observatory and United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura have put the death toll from the conflict at more than 300,000 and 400,000, respectively. This is while the UN has stopped its official casualty count in the Middle Eastern state, saying it is unable to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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