FSA rebels and Syrian Army Forces are locked into a brutal battle for control of Aleppo. Aleppo is a city divided into factions. Each group occupies a neighbourhood: rebel fighters, regime forces, Kurds, Islamists, foreign fighters, Sunni locals and so on. Fighting in Aleppo governorate began on 10 February 2011. Over the next five months, major clashes left large parts of the rural countryside under rebel control, while the provincial capital, Aleppo city, remained firmly under government control. On 19 July, rebel forces stormed the city and the battle began. On 21 September 2013, rebels seized control of several villages south of Aleppo in an offensive aimed at cutting the supply lines of Pro Assad forces from Damascus. On 3 October 2013, Syria's army took back control of a strategic town Khanaser of Aleppo in the northern province of Aleppo on Thursday after a weeks-long battle pitting troops against rebels, a monitoring group said. Several days later, the supply line to Aleppo was reopened as army troops advanced in the villages around Khanaser. Commuting is back to normal on a strategic road in Syria that has just been retaken from militants fighting against the Syrian government. The road links the central city of Hama with the flashpoint city of Aleppo in the north. It hosted the first convoy of over 20 trucks carrying fuel supplies to Aleppo on Wednesday. The route had been closed since August because of heavy fighting between the army and various militants. The army took control of the road on Sunday night after engaging in a fierce battle with the militants.This came on the heels of several recent advances by the army against the militants in the north. Since mid 2012, the government forces have been fighting with the various militants to take control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and the country's former commercial hub. According to opposition sources Hezbollah also is engaged in the battle of Aleppo, this comes despite the Israeli intelligence which claims that most Hezbollah fighters returned to Lebanon. Israeli media say that some 1,500 members of Hezbollah resistance movement have left Syria. Israeli website Debkafile said in a report on Monday that 1,500 Hezbollah forces left Syria last month and 3,500 others are about to return to Lebanon. The report also said the return of Lebanon's resistance movement's forces shows that the government of President Bashar al-Assad's power to fight militants has improved.

• published: 10 Oct 2013
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