Damascus - The Syrian army and allied militias control more than 30 villages and several strategic heights in the eastern Aleppo countryside following fierce battles with members of the Islamic state, Daesh, for its acronym in Arabic, according to military sources.

Army troops advanced 16 kilometers and extended a front of up to 25 kilometers wide, which means an area of more than 250 kilometers in about 20 days of combat, the reports confirmed.

According to reports, dozens of kilometers of fortifications, tunnels and trenches along the front were destroyed, as well as four thousand explosive devices were neutralized after controlling Aleppo-Al Bab road.

This last city, of about 150 thousand inhabitants, is located 40 km northeast of Aleppo, and belongs to that province bordering Turkey, whose troops are located in the northern region after breaking into Syrian territory since August 2016.

Syria has repeatedly denounced the incursion and retention of Turkish troops in that area under the pretext of attacking the Daesh, whose troops even retreated from the city of Jarablus 'ceded' by Ankara regime to opposition groups of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces.