Several villages of Aleppo recaptured by Syrian army

The Syrian army, backed by fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, has succeeded in capturing several villages north of Aleppo from foreign-backed militants.

A monitoring group said on Tuesday that the military also blocked a main supply route leading into the northwestern city amid heavy clashes between the two sides.

The so-called Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said pro-government forces had blocked a road leading north from the city toward the Turkish border.

Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, has been at the heart of scuffles between government forces and the Western-backed militants shortly after the insurgency began in the key Arab country in mid 2012.

At least nine people, including three children, have been killed in Aleppo after rockets launched by foreign-backed militants struck a government-held neighborhood on Monday. The fatal militant attack on the Hay al-Seryan neighborhood injured 20 more people.

Aleppo once served as Syria’s industrial powerhouse, but it was split between government-held western part and the militant-held eastern portion in mid-2012.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 people, according to reports. New figures indicate that over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria last year.

Over 7.2 million Syrians have also become internally displaced due to the ongoing crisis, according to the United Nations.