Syrian opposition advances 2 km to break regime's siege

Syrian moderate opposition gained control over Dahiyet al-Assad, a suburb with a low-rise residential district of two square kilometer on the southwest corner of the city during the operation aiming at breaking the regime siege of opposition-held areas in the Syrian province of Aleppo.

The opponents need to proceed for three more kilometers to break the siege.

Local sources said that moderate opponents hit the army of the Bashar al-Assad regime along with Hezbollah and Shi'ite militia.

Zakaria Malahifji, an official with the Fastaqim opposition group in Aleppo, said they ramped up measures against possible airstrikes of the Syrian regime and Russia.

“Assad and Moscow couldn't conduct effective airstrikes due to the weather conditions,” he added.

The operation was named as “Great War” by the opposition. Oppositions are proceeding to the city center from the southwestern suburbs and from the Dahiyat al-Assad region.

At the moment, around 300,000 people are under siege of the Assad regime. Aleppo is one of the critical areas, which has been suffering from clashes between the moderate opposition and the Iranian- and Russian-backed Assad regime.

The region is especially significant due to its location of being only 50 kilometers from Turkish territory. More than 250,000 civilians are still living in Aleppo.

Russia became involved in the Syrian civil war in September of 2015, as the closest ally, and along with Iran, Russia is the biggest supporter of the Bashar regime of Syria.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since the beginning of the five-year-long civil war in Syria.

The United Nations says more than 250,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the violence that turned into a civil war; however the Syrian Center for Policy Research, an NGO, has put the total death toll from conflict at more than 470,000.