THE Syrian army launched a push to surround insurgents holding the east of Aleppo city yesterday, quickly gaining ground.

Troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah guerillas and Palestinian Liwa al-Quds militia fighters captured the al-Mallah farms area and advanced into the Handarat Palestinian refugee camp.

Air force jets blitzed insurgents along the Castillo road north of the northern suburb of Sheikh Maqsoud, which is defended by the Kurdish YPG militia.

Insurgent rocket attacks on the Kurdish district killed one civilian and injured at least four, while dozens more were wounded in assaults by al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front terrorists.

A breakthrough to Sheikh Maqsoud and the government-held city centre would leave some 5,000 militants from Nusra and its allies Ahrar ash-Sham, the Army of Islam and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) cut off from their supply lines from Turkey.

Their surrender would be a major reversal of the rebels’ recent offensive in breach of the US-Russian negotiated ceasefire, and might prove decisive at the Geneva negotiating table.

In the north of Aleppo province, Islamic State (Isis) stepped up its counter-offensive against FSA and Nusra forces that had taken a strip of territory along the Turkish border — with support from Ankara’s jets and artillery.

Isis reportedly captured the villages of Baraghedeh and Kafr Ghan, north of Dabiq, possibly reaching the border and cutting the rebel salient in two.

On Wednesday, Russia and China tabled a draft United Nations security council resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons by the Army of Islam against Shekh Maqsoud and by Isis against the besieged eastern city of Deir Ezzor.