Syrian army retakes town near Aleppo from IS

Syrian government troops backed by Russian airstrikes recapture a town in Aleppo province from the Islamic State group in a key advance just two days ahead of a US and Russia-engineered ceasefire that is to take effect in Syria.

The town of Khanaser was seized earlier this week by the extremist Islamic State group, cutting government military access to the provincial capital, also called Aleppo, said the Syrian government and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group.

SANA says the army took Khanaser, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Aleppo city, after three days of heavy battles and that heavy fighting was still underway to reopen the road. On Tuesday, IS seized Khanaser and surrounding hills, severing the government’s main land route to the city.

In the push on Khanaser, the Syrian army and pro-government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes, The Observatory says.

The advance comes ahead of a ceasefire meant to start on midnight Friday. The Islamic State group and al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, however, are not included in the truce proposed by the United States and Russia.

The ceasefire is aimed at achieving a temporary “cessation of hostilities” that would bring back the Syrian government and its opponents to the negotiating table in Geneva.

The Syrian opposition has agreed to abide by the truce but expressed major concerns and reservations about what it said were ambiguities and the lack of any clear mechanism to implement the agreement.

— AP