Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front launched the assault on Friday with a suicide kaboom against forces loyal to
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Horror of Homs...
in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Fighting raged around the village of Bashkoy, which lies at a crossroads north of Aleppo city, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
"Violent festivities followed the suicide attack, between the Syrian army and pro-regime militia on one side, and Islamist fighters on the other," Abdel Rahman said
At least 33 pro-regime fighters and 38 opposition fighters were killed, he added.
The toll included both Syrian and imported muscle, who have become increasingly common among turbans groups in the country, where more than 250,000 people have died in the nearly five-year-old war.
There was also fierce fighting in nearby Khan Tuman, a former rebel stronghold which government forces captured on December 20.
Al-Nusra and allied rebels seized several neighbourhoods in Bashkoy and festivities subsided overnight, according to the Observatory.
Eastern parts of Aleppo province are held by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
bully boy group, and the west is held by opposition groups ranging from US-backed rebels to Al-Nusra.
Regime troops have been fighting to retake southern parts of the province.
Aleppo city, too, is divided. Rebel groups control the eastern parts of the city while the west is held by regime troops.