THE Syrian army took full control of the only road into the insurgent-occupied east of Aleppo yesterday.

After defeating fierce counter­attacks by extremists on their positions in the Mallah Farms area on Saturday night, government troops took Castello Hill, overlooking the key Castello Road, and advanced around half a mile to the south.

“It’s completely cut,” Zakaria Malahifji of Aleppo-based insurgent Fastaqim told Reuters.

A source from another group, the Levant Front, confirmed that the army had reached the road.

Fighting continued yesterday as the Fatah Halab and Jaish al-Fatah coalitions — a mixture of al-Qaifda affiliate the Nusra Front and various Saudi, Qatari and Turkish mercenary groups — tried to open the road again.

But they face a pincer movement which made further gains in the al-Layramoun industrial district in the city’s north
They took the Makki and Hamoud factories, advancing to within 200 yards of the al-Layramoun roundabout on the Castello Road.

The army also took control of Kinsibba in the mountainous north of coastal Latakia province, near the Turkish border, on Saturday.

However, the Nusra Front claimed it had retaken the town yesterday.

Meanwhile, a huge explosion was reported at the As-Safira munitions factory, in government territory some 12 miles south-east of Aleppo, on Saturday night.

No reports of damage or casualties emerged, but images of a huge fireball rising into the sky were posted on the internet.