Syria’s army and its allies have broken a three-year rebel siege of two Shia towns in northwest Syria, the government and rebel groups said, cutting off a main supply route to nearby Turkey.

The breakthrough comes after days of rapid military gains north of the major city of Aleppo, with Russian air strikes playing a key role in the advance.

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Fighting has intensified outside the Yemeni capital, killing at least 30 people in two days, security officials and tribal elders said Tuesday.

Some 25 fighters from both sides were killed in clashes between government forces and Shi’ite rebels and their allies some 65 kilometers east of Sanaa, they said, adding that five civilians were also killed when artillery shells hit residential areas.

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The Syrian government launched a major offensive from the north of Aleppo and captured several strategically important towns, as talks in Geneva on a ceasefire continued on Tuesday.

Monday’s advance opened the way for President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to retake Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, as troops marched through the towns of Hardatnein, Tal Jibbeen, and Deir Zaitoun.

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Heavy fighting has erupted in northeastern Lebanon over the weekend between the major Islamist factions in the Syrian Civil War, ISIS and al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra, who fought on the outskirts of the town of Arsal, which is housing tens of thousands of refugees.

Reports from the area suggest at least nine ISIS and seven Nusra fighters were killed in the weekend fighting, and local Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri, seen as close to Nusra, is said to be trying to broker some sort of local truce between the two sides to end the fighting.

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Al-Qaeda fighters have taken control of a town in southern Yemen on a major road linking two provincial capitals, a local official and tribal chiefs said today.

Militants swept unopposed into Azzan, in Shabwa province, before raising the al-Qaeda flag over public buildings, the sources said.

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