Abu Abdollah Jabal†[11] (al-Nusra top commander) Umar al-Daghestani†[12] (al-Nusra commander) Seif al-Ansari†[13] (al-Nusra commander) Abu Alaa Ta'oum†[14] (Ahrar ash-Sham commander) Abu Aisha†[14] (Jund al-Aqsa top commander)
Brig. Gen. Javad Dourbin † (IRGC senior commander)[15]
In the afternoon of 1 April, rebel forces launched the offensive, targeting the strategic village of Tel el-Ais,[29] that overlooks the Damascus–Aleppo highway.[30] The operation started with preparatory shelling[29] hitting the village's southwestern flank.[31] This was followed up by a ground assault that included an attack conducted by three suicide car bombers against government positions.[32] According to one report, the bombers did not reach their targets,[31] while according to another, they managed to clear the way for the rebel infantry.[33] Still, the attack on Tel el-Ais was eventually repelled. However, soon after, the rebels launched a second assault,[34] and early on 2 April, they captured Tel el-Ais.[30] The Al-Nusra Front claimed they ambushed government troops as they were withdrawing from the village.[32]
After securing the village, the rebels proceeded to attack and seize the Jabal Al-'Eiss (Mount Eiss) area, with the Army withdrawing towards Hader.[16] Meanwhile, elsewhere along the frontline, the rebels captured the villages of Abu Ruwayl, Hawbar and Birnah as the offensive started, however they were recaptured by the military by the following morning.[35][36] Among the dead on the government side from the previous two days of fighting were 12 Hezbollah fighters[37] and three IRGC officers.[38]
As of early 3 April, a counter-attack had not yet started as government forces were awaiting the arrival of the final batch of ammunition and vehicles. Later in the day, a rebel source stated 100 government vehicles were seen heading towards the southern countryside of Aleppo.[39][non-primary source needed] At 10 p.m. that evening,[18] the Army counter-attack started and government forces reportedly captured several points on the eastern and northern perimeter of Tel el-Ais, coming to within a few hundred meters of the village.[40] Still, by the morning, two attacks to breach the village itself had been repelled, although the main assault had not yet taken place as airstrikes continued.[18]
On 5 April, a Syrian Air Force plane was shot down in the area of Tel el-Ais by the Al-Nusra Front,[41] with the pilot captured.[42][43] During the day, members of the Iranian 65th Airborne Special Forces Brigade reportedly arrived in Hader.[44] For the first time since February, Russian air-strikes were conducted in the southern Aleppo countryside, in preparation for the Army counter-attack.[45]
Late on 5 April, the Iranian special forces, supported by Syrian Army troops, attacked the village. In the early hours of the next day,[20][46] it was incorrectly claimed they recaptured Tel el-Ais.[47] Still, pro-opposition SOHR confirmed government troops made progress in the area of Tel el-Ais.[46] During the day, the rebels temporarily withdrew from the village due to heavy shelling before returning.[47] The same day, another large Army convoy arrived in the area.[48]
On 9 April, the rebels took control of the village of Khalidiyah, near Khan Tuman,[28][49] as well as two hilltops[50] and large parts of Zaytan, Birnah and al-Qal'ajiyyeh.[51][52] Meanwhile, government forces intensified their shelling of Tel el-Ais and nearby Zorba, with over 100 mortars and rockets being fired at rebel positions, while Russian air-strikes continued.[53]
The next day, the military recaptured Khalidiyah and the rebels withdrew from Zaytan, Birnah and other positions they had taken during the previous 24 hours.[54][55][56] During the rebel assault on Khalidiyah and Khan Tuman, four Iranian commandos were killed, including two members of the 65th Airborne Special Forces Brigade.[57]
On 12 April, a new government assault on Tel el-Ais started.[58] Before the attack, 300 rockets were launched at rebel positions in the area.[59] Fighting also took place near Khan Tuman.[58] The Army managed to advance and capture several hills in the area,[60] as well as most of the village itself.[61] However, this latest attack on Tel el-Ais was also eventually repelled,[62] when government forces withdrew from the village after not being able to take Jabal Al-'Eiss hill.[61] The hills that they had also seized earlier in the day were once again under rebel control.[63][64]
Interlude
One week after the end of the offensive, the rebels once again launched a two-pronged attack against Khan Tuman, Zaytan and Birnah. The attack was quickly repelled, with more than 30 rebels reportedly being killed at Khan Tuman and two of their tanks being destroyed.[65]
Second offensive (May 2016)
On 5 May, the United States and Russia agreed on a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo for 48 hours. However, fighting continued in the city and surrounding areas.[66] The same day, the Army of Conquest militants, supported by Jund al-Aqsa and the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria (TIP),[3] advanced and captured the village of Khalidiyah, west of Khan Tuman and southwest of Aleppo.[2][67][68] The rebels then launched artillery attack on Khan Tuman. During the fighting, the Army destroyed a car bomb with a rocket.[69] Around 7 a.m. on 6 May,[70] the rebels captured Khan Tuman, as well as five other nearby villages.[4][71][72][73] In all, 62 pro-government fighters and 57 rebels were killed in the rebel assault.[74][non-primary source needed] During the clashes, an air strike hit a heavy concentration of rebels, killing 18 fighters.[14]
Following the capture of Khan Tuman, hundreds of government reinforcements, including Palestinian militiamen, were sent to help recapture the town.[9] Preparations were being made for a counter-attack, with Russian air-strikes reportedly hitting rebel positions in the area.[75] On 7 May, government troops recaptured three villages.[73]
The counter-attack against Khan Tuman started on 8 May,[6] and was reportedly repelled.[76] By 11 May, the fighting in the area of Khan Tuman left 173 fighters dead on both sides and more than 300 wounded. Among those killed on the rebel side were 35 Turkistan Islamic Party members as well as a number of Uzbeks. Among pro-government dead were 55 Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese.[23][non-primary source needed]
Overnight between 11 and 12 May, heavy Russian air-strikes hit rebel positions in the area of Khan Tuman.[77][78]
Third offensive (June 2016)
On 3 June, a new surprise rebel offensive was started.[79] al-Nusra suicide bombers detonated car bombs near Khan Tuman, followed by an assault with heavy armour toward pro-government positions. Ahrar al-Sham then seized the village of Maratah, capturing a large amount munitions crates, a T-62, and a fuel depot.[80] The rebels also took over three more villages, an air defence battalion, and a weapons warehouse.[81] By the next day, the rebels had taken control of five villages.[82] The same day, the Sham Legion launched an anti-tank guided missile at a suspected Syrian Army position near the area, killing a Dagestanial-Qaeda commander in a friendly fire incident.[12]
On 14 June, al-Nusra led a fresh jihadist assault in the southern Aleppo countryside, targeting the villages of Khalsah and Zeitain, controlled by a number of pro-government forces. The jihadists initially captured Zeitain, whilst heavy fighting continued in Khalsah.[83][84][85]
On 15 June, the National Defence Forces, Hezbollah and allied forces launched a counter-attack and succeeded in recapturing the village of Zeitan, whilst also repelling the jihadist assault on Khalsah. It was reported that over 20 jihadist fighters had been killed, whilst a rebel T-72 tank and 2 BMP's were destroyed.[86][87]
On 16 June, a pro-government counter-attack against Maratah was repelled.[88]
During the night of 17 and 18 June, the jihadist rebels led by al-Nusra imposed full control over the villages of Khalsah, Zeitan and Birnah, despite suffering heavy losses, including the death of a top commander.[13][89][90] Overall, 186 fighters on both sides were killed in the fighting over the previous four days, 100 rebels and 86 pro-government fighters.[25]
Muhaysini visited Turkistan Islamic Party fighters before the battle and performed dua. Khan Tuman in Aleppo then came under attack by the Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party.[91][92][93] A picture of Muhaysini with a Turkistan Islamic Party fighter in Khan Touman was released by the Turkistan Islamic Party after the battle.[94][95] They displayed weapons and munitions seized during the battle. Corpses of what the TIP labelled as "Rawafid" (Shia) fighters and pictures of "Iranian" prisoners were released by the TIP.[96][97]
The siege of Nubl and al-Zahraa during the Syrian civil war was laid by rebels to capture two Syrian government-held towns north of Aleppo, after they had seized most of the northern countryside in July 2012. The siege was lifted on 3 February 2016, as a result of a Syrian government offensive.
The Aleppo offensive was a Syrian Army large-scale strategic offensive south of Aleppo. The main objective of the operation was to secure the Azzan Mountains, while also creating a larger buffer zone around the only highway to the provincial capital controlled by the Syrian government. A related objective was to establish favourable conditions for a planned offensive to isolate rebel forces in Aleppo City and to relieve the long-standing siege of a pro-government enclave in Aleppo Governorate.
On the 7 October 2015, shortly after the start of the Russian air campaign in Syria, the Syrian government forces and its allies launched a ground offensive against anti-government positions in northwestern Syria, initially in northern Hama Governorate. The primary objective is to seal off the northern Hama border with Idlib and "build a buffer-zone around the city of Khan Sheikhoun". It has been described as the first major Syrian-Russian coordinated attack since the start of the Syrian Civil War. The offensive was extended in the subsequent days to the al-Ghab plains, between northwest Hama and southwest Idlib, as well as to the edge of the Latakia governorate.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2016. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The 2016 Khanasir offensive was a military operation conducted by ISIL and Jund al-Aqsa, during the Syrian Civil War, with the aim of cutting the Syrian government's only supply route to the northern part of the Aleppo Governorate, which runs through the town of Khanasir.
The Rif Dimashq offensive was a Syrian Army offensive in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, that was launched in late April 2016, as part of the Syrian Civil War. The offensive resulted in the military's capture of the southern section of the rebel-held East Ghouta, as government forces exploited concurrent large-scale rebel infighting in East Ghouta that left around 500 rebels dead.
The 2016 Aleppo summer campaign started with a military operation launched on the northern outskirts of Aleppo in late June 2016, by the Syrian Arab Army. The aim of the offensive was to cut the last rebel supply line into Aleppo city.
The 2016 Latakia offensive, code-named Battle of Yarmouk, refers to a rebel operation launched in the northern Latakia Governorate in late June 2016. The aim of the offensive was to recapture the territory lost during the Army's offensive earlier in the year.
The Aleppo offensive refers to a military operation launched on the northern outskirts of Aleppo in late June 2016, by the Syrian Army. The aim of the offensive was to cut the last rebel supply line into Aleppo city.
The Aleppo offensive refers to a military operation launched on the southern outskirts of Aleppo at the end of July 2016 by rebel forces in Syria. The aim of the offensive was to establish a new supply line into Aleppo city, after a previous Army offensive had cut off all rebel access to Aleppo.
This is a chronological account of combat operations in 2016 during the Battle of Aleppo, part of the Syrian Civil War.
The 2016 Hama offensive, codenamed as the Battle for the sake of God by the rebels, was a military offensive operation launched by Syrian rebels during the Syrian Civil War in the northern parts of Hama Governorate as an attempt to relieve pressure on rebels fighting in Aleppo city.
The Quneitra offensive was launched by Syrian rebel forces, during the Syrian Civil War, in order to capture the government-held town of Hader, Quneitra Governorate.
The Aleppo offensive was a Syrian Army counter-offensive launched on the southern outskirts of Aleppo in mid-September 2016. The aim of the offensive was to recapture territory lost due to a rebel offensive earlier in August and besiege the rebel-held part of Aleppo once again.
The Khan al-Shih offensive was a Syrian Army offensive in the Rif Dimashq Governorate that was launched in early October 2016, as part of the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to take control of the rebel-held part of western Ghouta. The main rebel stronghold in the region was the town of Khan al-Shih.
The Idlib Governorate clashes , were military confrontations between Syrian rebel factions led by Ahrar al-Sham and their allies on one side and the al-Qaeda-aligned Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and their allies on the other. After 7 February, the clashes also included Jund al-Aqsa as a third belligerent, which had re-branded itself as Liwa al-Aqsa and was attacking the other combatants. The battles were fought in the Idlib Governorate and the western countryside of the Aleppo Governorate.
The Daraa offensive , code named as the battle of "Death Rather than Humiliation" by the rebels, was a military operation launched by Syrian rebels against positions of the Syrian Arab Army in the Manshiyah District of Daraa city, in southern Syria, during the Syrian Civil War.
The Hama offensive was a military offensive launched by Syrian rebel groups led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) north of the city of Hama, as part of the Syrian Civil War. The offensive began on 21 March 2017, and the rebels aimed to recapture areas recaptured by the Syrian Armed Forces in the 2016 Hama offensive, as well as pushing into Hama city. The offensive was coordinated with rebel forces in Damascus' eastern suburbs, who launched their own operation in March 2017. Though the rebels had some initial success, reaching the outskirts of Hama, these gains were stopped and eventually reversed by Syrian government counter-attacks, which by the end of April had recaptured all of the territory lost the previous month.
Khan Tuman (operation) (Persian: عملیات خان طومان) is a war operation which was done in the town of Khan Tuman, Syrian, and was finally captured by the Syrian army on 29 January 2020.
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Jund al-Aqsa [2] 
Caucasus Emirate [5] 
Free Syrian Army 
Saraya al-Areen [10] 
Abu Abdollah Jabal † [11] 
Abu Alaa Ta'oum † [14] 
Brig. Gen. Shafi Shafii † 
