Syrian Troops Regain Control of Aleppo Power Plant
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syrian army and volunteer forces have regained control of the Aleppo Thermal Power Plant, which was the country's largest electricity producing facility prior to damage suffered during the ongoing war.
Syrian army backed by popular volunteer forces regained control of the Aleppo Thermal Station that has been out of commission for approximately two years since the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group seized it, a report said.
It said that the Syrian army advanced into the facility after "heavy strikes by Russian jets and Syrian helicopters."
Syrian army troops steadily advanced toward Aleppo Thermal Plant on the outskirts of the Daesh-held Raqqa Province after lifting the terrorist group’s siege on the Kuweires airbase to the southeast of the installation in mid-November 2015.
The Aleppo power plant—which went into service in 1998 and has a maximum capacity of 1065 megawatts—was seized by Daesh in November 2013. Reports indicate that the plant has been out of service since suffering heavy damage in mid-2013.
Control over the facility will enable the supply of Aleppo and (parts of) its countryside under the control of the Syrian Army with an important source of electricity, replacing the line coming from Hama through the village of Al-Zerba.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Erbil-based ARA News noted the military repercussions of the plant's seizure, saying that it would allow Syrian army forces to "isolate Daesh from its bases in the towns of Al-Bab and Manbij, and impose their control over most of eastern Aleppo countryside."
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011. In the past four years, more than 260,000 people have died in Syria -overwhelmingly civilians– and around 4 million Syrian people are now refugees in other countries. Another 7.6 million are displaced inside Syria.
