At least 50 IS fighters killed in Aleppo: Monitor

At least 50 fighters of the Islamic State (IS) group have been killed in the last 24 hours in an advance by Syrian government forces east of Aleppo city, a monitor said on Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters were killed in clashes as well as strikes by Russian forces that are waging an aerial campaign in support of government troops.

Since Saturday morning, Syrian government forces have taken or at least encircled more than a dozen villages from IS militants around a stretch of highway that runs east from the northern city of Aleppo to the Kweiris military base, reports said. The director of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, put the number of villages involved at 16.

"The army has encircled IS in 16 villages south of the road. The regime wants to take these villages to consolidate its position in the east and southeast of the province," he said.

According to local media reports, IS's withdrawal from 25 villages and towns in Aleppo's countryside is the biggest so far, resulting in consolidated government control over these areas to the highway leading to Kweiris, which IS had captured last November.  

The reports said Shia militias fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces took control of a strategic power plant near the town of al-Bab, which was a major stronghold of the Islamic State in eastern Aleppo's countryside.

Residents told local news outlets that the IS fighters withdrew from the power plant after a "light confrontation" with the Syrian government forces.

The advances follow a major government operation in northern Aleppo against rebel forces that have allowed them to virtually surround the opposition-held east of Aleppo city.