In Syria, heavy fighting cuts off road to city off Aleppo

At least 42 people have been in killed in two vehicle bomb blasts in the Syrian city of Homs.

The reports said Shia militias fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces took control of a strategic power plant near the town of al-Bab, which was a major stronghold of the Islamic State in eastern Aleppo’s countryside.

The new setback comes with government troops on the offensive north and west of Aleppo, where rebel forces in the east of the city are nearly completely surrounded.

A Syrian military source told Reuters army operations were continuing in order to repel the Islamic State assault on the road linking government-held cities of western Syria with Aleppo.

The advances allowed government to control over the stretch of highway leading to Kweyris, which they seized in November.

Other reports said a large convoy of reinforcements has been sent from eastern Aleppo to help recapture the road.

“Army units defeated the remaining remnants of Daesh terrorist organization from the Thermal Power Station and the surrounding areas 30km to the east of Aleppo”, SANA reported on its website.

The offensive has led to the displacement of more than 50,000 civilians from Aleppo, tens of thousands of whom have amassed in camps at the Turkish border.

If true, the Syrian Armed Forces will have to launch a counter-attack from either the northern or southern flank of Rasm Al-Nafal in order to push back the Islamist rebels and reopen their only supply route to the Aleppo Governorate.