A major Syrian opposition body has announced that opposition forces have broken a regime siege of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition said on Twitter on Saturday: "Opposition forces break Aleppo's siege".
The Ahrar al-Sham opposition group also posted on Twitter that opposition forces had seized control of Ramosa on the southwestern edges of the city and thereby "opened the route to Aleppo".
Syrian regime forces encircled Aleppo on July 17 after closing off the last opposition-controlled route into the city.
Zouhir al-Shimale, a journalist in Aleppo, told Al Jazeera that the siege has "practically been broken".
A coalition of opposition groups, Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest), announced on Friday it had taken control of a strategic military base in the Ramosa quarter in southwestern Aleppo.
The opposition forces used the base to launch raids on the regime-held area, according to Shimale.
At around 12pm local time on Saturday, a car bomb exploded in al-Amiriya, at the edge of the besieged part of city, he said.
Shimale said the area between Ramosa and Amiriya is now all under the control of the opposition forces.
"There are heavy clashes and random shelling from helicopters and warplanes," he added.
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, previously al-Nusra Front, said on Saturday that opposition forces pushing out from inside Aleppo city had linked up with those on the outskirts, according to AFP news agency.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group that records daily developments in the country, said "the opposition forces have linked up and advanced into the eastern districts of Aleppo" but have not yet secured a safe route due to Russian aerial bombardment and heavy regime shelling on the area.
An estimated 250,000 civilians live in Aleppo's opposition-held eastern quarters.
Until recent weeks, Aleppo was roughly divided between regime control in the west and opposition control in the east since mid-2012.
If cemented, the breakthrough in Aleppo would be a boost for the opposition forces, who have been fighting for weeks to retake control of the city despite heavy bombardment by Russian and Syrian regime forces.
The Syrian uprising began as a mostly unarmed against Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but it quickly escalated into a full-blown war.
PHOTO CAPTION
Residents inspect a damaged site after an airstrike on Aleppo's opposition held Al-Mashad neighborhood, Syria July 26, 2016 (Reuters).
Al-Jazeera