Syrian governmental troops, advancing from southwestern outskirts of Aleppo, have gained control over a vast section of the Hama-Aleppo road, the last stretch of the strategically important Damascus-Aleppo highway linking the country’s north and south.

According to Al-Mayadee, a pan-Arab Beirut-based TV, Syrian army units liberated from militants the villages of Khirbat Jazrayah and Qanatir in the south of Aleppo.

At present, governmental troops have approached the village of al-Qamariyah, from where they are expected to launch a rear attack to militants in the Rashideen-4 district in western Aleppo.

A critically important development in the area took place on February 8, when two separate formations of the Syrian armed forces, advancing from the governorates of Idlib and Aleppo, met late in the Tell Iss district on the Aleppo-Damascus highway. As a result of the operation, they encircled the remaining militant positions in the vicinity of the road.

As a result of the ongoing operation, governmental troops expect to restore control over the entire 432-km Aleppo-Damascus highway, a strategically important road linking the country’s north and south.