Battle Map of Aleppo: Syrian Army Captures Tal Madafa and Halabi Farms Near Handarat

The Syrian Arab Army continued their counter-offensive near the recently captured village of Handarat in northern Aleppo, expanding their control over a number of areas adjacent to the latter.

On Thursday morning, the SAA – in cooperation with the National Defense Forces (NDF) – took complete control of Tal Madafa (Madafa Hill) after fierce clashes with the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and their allies from Jasyh Al-Mujahiddeen and Harakat ‘Ahrar Al-Sham.

Despite asserting their control over Tal Madafa last week, Jabhat Al-Nusra and their allies were able to recapture parts of the southwestern perimeter; this changed on Thursday when the SAA and NDF pushed the enemy combatants south towards the Al-Oweija District.

In conjunction with their success at Tal Madafa, the SAA captured Mazra’a Al-Halabi (Halabi Farms) and Mazra’a Arandees (Arandees Farms) located west of Handarat village; thus, positioning the SAA just east of Al-Mallah.

North of Handarat village, the SAA and NDF contingents at Bashkoy in northern Aleppo repelled another Jabhat Al-Nusra infiltration attempt, killing at least a dozen enemy combatants during the process of the attack – Jabhat Al-Nusra forces withdrew to the village of Rityan once again.

Topographical Map Syria & Iraq INSANE Detail

Click to Enlarge Map - It will lag it is a GIANT file

Map of Kurdish Populations throughout Syria Iraq Iran and Turkey

Map: Foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria has surged October 2014 January 2015

By Swati Sharma January 27  

The number of foreign fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria, mostly to fight alongside the Islamic State, has grown to 20,000 — up more than 5,000 from previous estimates made in October, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR).

These new figures are alarming, inasmuch as they indicate that the conflict has attracted more foreign militants than the conflict in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The last time this many militants traveled to fight in a foreign conflict was in 1945.

Another key takeaway from the new data is that, at 4,000, a fifth of the foreign fighters come from Western nations. While estimates from countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, fluctuated a little, there were huge increases in fighters coming from European nations.

France previously accounted for 412 fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria. The new data show that number has  almost tripled, to 1,200. The Netherlands, Britain and Austria all accounted for about 100 additional fighters.

Belgium, a much smaller nation, went from 296 to 440 and has the highest number of fighters per capita of any Western nation. The country has been "experiencing the consequences of what critics call decades of ineffectiveness in integrating immigrants, including many Muslims."According to a story by my colleague Michael Birnbaum:

[T]he country faces particular challenges because........

 Click here to see read the rest of this story ......