Beirut (AFP) - Syrian rebels on Friday seized back territory from regime forces north of Aleppo, stymying government efforts to sever a key opposition supply route into the city, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel forces had taken back the strategic Mallah Farms area outside the city, as well as several villages seized by government troops in an offensive that began Tuesday.
The advances were a setback for the regime, which had hoped to block the highway leading to the Turkish border from the rebel-held east of Aleppo.
The offensive was also intended to break a rebel siege on two Shiite government-held towns that have been blockaded for more than 18 months.
But on Friday, the Observatory said the regime had failed to achieve either goal in the bloody offensive.
All but one of the villages taken by government troops in the initial fighting have been recaptured by rebels and fighters from Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, the monitor said.
It reported that the fighting killed 129 regime forces, including five members of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group, as well as 116 rebel and jihadist forces, among them a military chief from Al-Nusra.
With the capture of the Mallah Farms, the rebels have succeeded in preventing government forces from blocking their supply route and encircling eastern opposition-held Aleppo, the Observatory said.