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al-Nusra artillery pounds Kurd positions in Aleppo
[ARA] ALEPPO – Militants of Nusra Front, al-Qaeda branch in Syria, bombed on Monday the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, killing and wounding a number of civilians. According to local sources, the Islamists hit the district with dozens of mortar shells. “Four civilians were killed and more than ten others were wounded in the terror attack by Nusra militants,” local civil rights activist Jiwan Afrini told ARA News in Aleppo. “The wounded have been moved from the rubble to a field hospital for treatment.” “The shelling has caused a mass destruction in residential buildings in Sheikh Maqsoud district,” the source said. Sheikh Maqsoud is under the control of Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) –leading member of the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This comes after the al-Qaeda-affliated Nusra Front and its allies lost ground to the Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF in northern Aleppo. On Friday, the SDF seized control of the villages of Tat Mrash and Tanab in the vicinity of Azaz city north of Aleppo after clashes with militant fighters of al-Nusra Front and the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham. On Sunday, the western-backed SDF units recaptured the village of Keshtaar in the suburb of Tel Rafaat city north of Aleppo. The village has been constantly used by Nusra militants and allied Islamists as a base from which they used to attack the Kurdish region of Afrin northwest of Aleppo. Posted by: badanov 2016-01-05 |
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