Cairo, Nov. 28, (dpa/GNA) – Syria’s armed forces said on Thursday they were continuing to fight rebels in the north-western part of the country, as a war monitor reported the death toll has increased to 132.
Clashes between militants and Syrian government forces began on Wednesday in the north-west of the country in Aleppo province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 49 Syrian soldiers were killed, while the rest of the fatalities were rebels.
The UK-based monitor group said an alliance of Islamist rebel groups had attacked positions of the Syrian armed forces in rural areas west of Aleppo.
In a statement released by the SANA news agency, the Syrian armed forces said that terrorist groups have launched a major attack on military posts in several villages and towns “in a blatant violation of the de-escalation agreement.”
“Our armed forces have confronted the terrorist attack, which is still ongoing, and have inflicted heavy losses in equipment and lives of terrorist organizations,” it said.
The Syrian forces are fighting “in cooperation with friendly forces, in order to restore the situation to how it was,” it added without clarifying.
A devastating civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.
With the help of Syria’s allies, Russia and Iran, President Bashar al-Assad has since regained control of two-thirds of the country, but the north-west is still under the control of opposition forces.
The extremist Islamist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is considered one of the strongest armed groups in north-western Syria.
GNA