Syrian Armed Forces repel Al-Nusra Front attack in western Aleppo
Shafaq News/ The Syrian Ministry of Defense has announced that the Syrian Armed Forces repelled a major attack launched by a group of Al-Nusra Front on army positions in the western countryside of Aleppo.
The attack was launched in the Kafr Amma area, east of Atarib, taking advantage of the iftar time.
The ministry stated that the group suffered heavy losses in personnel and equipment and that 11 terrorists were eliminated, including the group's leader and large numbers of them were wounded.
Additionally, five bodies of those killed, including foreign nationals, were withdrawn, and their weapons and equipment were seized.
Al-Nusra Front, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra or Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, was a jihadist militant group in Syria during the Syrian Civil War. The group was formed in January 2012 as a branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria to establish an Islamic state in Syria.
Al-Nusra Front quickly became one of the most effective and powerful rebel groups in Syria, gaining support from other Islamist militants and some local communities. The group carried out numerous attacks against the Syrian military and government, as well as against other rebel groups that it deemed to be insufficiently Islamist.
In July 2016, Al-Nusra Front announced that it was breaking ties with Al-Qaeda and renaming itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. The group stated that it was doing so to distance itself from Al-Qaeda's global jihadist agenda and better integrate itself into the Syrian opposition. However, the move was seen by some analysts as a tactical maneuver to avoid being targeted by international airstrikes that were being carried out against Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria.
In January 2017, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham merged with several other Syrian rebel groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which continued to operate as a jihadist militant group in Syria. The group was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Russia, and several other countries.
