After liberating suburbs and a total of 23 villages west and north of the metropolis, the terrorist attacks against the local population have also ceased, Swedish weekly Nya Tider reported.
The areas surrounding Syria’s former financial center Aleppo have been liberated following a lightning-strike Syrian offensive there, which forced the Islamists to flee. The international airport has now opened after being closed for almost eight years.
US President Donald Trump, after a phone call with Turkish leader President Erdogan, which he praised, tried to put pressure on Syria and Russia to stop the offensive against the terrorists in Idlib. But Moscow has completely dismissed these plays from Washington and Ankara. The situation is now so pressing for the terrorists in al-Qaeda that Turkey no longer has time to conceal arms deliveries to them, which has been taking place completely openly.
On February 16, all the suburbs and villages west and northwest of Aleppo were liberated. On the same evening, the residents of the big city spilled from their homes to celebrate the government victory over the terrorists. Aleppo’s streets were filled with honking cars and cheering people.
This is almost eight years after the 2012 jihadists stormed the city and managed to take control of the eastern half. They executed crowds of people and not infrequently in the most inhuman ways. While residents of the East had to submit to a reign of terror, however, government forces and civilians stayed in the western half of the city until all of Aleppo was liberated just before Christmas 2016.
The city of Sarmada has been a strategically important road junction that was and is absolutely crucial for Turkey and the Islamists to bring in reinforcements, weapons and other materiel to the front line west of Aleppo. Military sources believe that this will be the next target of Syrian aerial bombings.
As a consequence of the government’s success this February, the Aleppo International Airport will be reopened. On February 17, Syrian Transport Minister Ali Hammoud announced that Aleppo International Airport will open for air traffic and already on the 19th, the first flight from Damascus to Aleppo was completed.
