The Syrian government forces, including the Iraqi and Lebanese Hezbollah, stormed defense lines of the terrorist groups near Tal Bastawi, which ended in the killing or wounding of tens of the Takfiri terrorists who fled the battlefield.
The Syrian military forces captured Tal Bastawi and started to fortify their positions there.
The pro-government forces, meantime, repelled the terrorists' offensive near the village of Abu Reil and killed at least 25 of them.
In relevant development on Saturday, the Syrian Army announced that thousands of fresh forces were dispatched to the Southern territories of Aleppo province to take part in the government forces' large-scale anti-terrorism operation in Khan Touman region.
"Thousands of fresh but experienced forces have been dispatched to the Southern part of Aleppo province and thousands more will also be sent the battlefield to support the operating forces," the army said.
"The Syrian and Russian warplane have been heavily bombing the terrorists' newly-captured positions in Khan Touman region in the past hours and now the ground is paved for a final operation to push the militants back from the region," the army added.
"A large number of popular forces will also accompany the army men in the operation," the army underlined.
Reports said also on Saturday that the Syrian and Russian fighter jets, in a fresh round of large-scale joint combat operations, bombed heavily the terrorist groups' concentration centers in the Southern parts of Aleppo province to lay the ground for the imminent operation of the government forces in Khan Touman region.
Almost the entire positions of the terrorist groups of al-Nusra Front, Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham inside and outside of Khan Touman were massively bombed by a large number of the Syrian and Russian warplanes.
The airstrikes inflicted major damage on the terrorists' military and logistic vehicle.
Tens of the terrorists were also killed in the air attacks.
The air attacks also destroyed supply and commination lines of the terrorist groups in the region, which have pave the way for the pro-government forces to carry out a large-scale operation there to return security to Khan Touman and its surroundings as soon as possible.
The Al-Nusra and units of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) claim to have taken back Khan Touman, but government forces say they are still in charge of key centers and blocks in the town.
The Syrian army alongside the National Defense Forces and Hezbollah fighters regained full control over the town of Khan Touman in December. Ever since then the city has fallen back to the terrorists twice, with the second time being this weekend.
Following an unsuccessful truce that was repeatedly violated by the terrorist groups, the Al-Nusra Front - the Syria arm of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group - could relocate some 20,000 terrorists to Northern Aleppo via Turkey's soil to launch a large-scale attack on pro-government positions in several key cities in Aleppo province, including Khan Touman in the Southwest, FNA reported.
212-11