The Syrian Army’s Tiger Forces, backed up by the National Defense Forces (NDF) and the Russian Aerospace Forces, have retaken the strategic town of Aran from the ISIS terrorist group in the province of Aleppo.
Aran is located directly south of the ISIS-held key town of al-Bab. Aran had been the last major ISIS stronghold, preventing Syrian government forces to reach the outskirts of al-Bab.
Clashes for Aran had been ongoing for almost 3 days and resulted in heavy death toll among terrorists. Some pro-government sources claim that over 50 ISIS members were killed in the operation. However, according to local sources the nubmer of killed ISIS members is between 20 and 25. The ISIS terrorists also lost 2 vehicles and 1 SVBIED. There are no confirmed information about the casualties among pro-government units.
Now the Tiger Forces and the NDF are advancing on the village of Birat Bab. If it’s liberated, government troops will be in a striking distance from the village of Tadif which lays only few km south of al-Bab.
If Syrian government forces reach outskirts of al-Bab before the Turkish Army and pro-Turkish militants retake it from ISIS, Ankara, Damascus and Moscow will likely be pushed to recognize the ongoing military cooperation on the ground on an official level.