Islamic Terror Group Kills 73,Seize Village Near Aleppo

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said on Friday that rebels seized a village
from government forces near Aleppo
overnight.
The rebels are gaining important ground
near the Syrian city where the US and
Russia are trying to de-escalate the war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said that 73 people had been killed in the
battle for Khan Touman, in a location near
the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
However, Syrian army source denied Khan
Touman had
fallen.
The attack was launched by an alliance of
Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-
Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra
Front, which has rejected diplomatic
efforts to halt the war and promote peace
talks.
The US and Russia this week brokered a
ceasefire in the city of Aleppo itself, where
some 300 people have been killed in the
last two weeks in government- and rebel-
held areas as a result of air strikes and
shelling.
“Throughout the night the battles were
very intense,” said Abu al-Baraa al-
Hamawi, a fighter from the Ajnad al-Sham
group, one of the factions taking part in
the attack.
The Observatory said 43 of the dead were
rebels and 30 were government forces.
Groups fighting under the banner of the
Free Syrian Army, which have mostly
supported diplomatic efforts in Syria, were
not taking part in the attack, a fighter from
one Aleppo-based FSA group said.