Syria Situation Report: May 7 - 13, 2016

A temporary ceasefire ended in Aleppo City on May 11, sparking a new wave of violence throughout the city and its outskirts. The U.S. and Russia brokered the local truce on May 5 as part of an effort to tamp down on mounting clashes and reinstate a nationwide 'cessation of hostilities'. Meanwhile, pro-regime forces suffered several major casualties this week. Lebanese Hezbollah stated that top military commander Mustafa Badreddine died in an unidentified explosion near Damascus that some sources attributed to Israel. Badreddine reportedly oversaw all military operations conducted by Hezbollah in Syria. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the death of one of its soldiers during opposition shelling in Homs Province. The incident marks the ninth fatality acknowledged by the Russian Armed Forces in Syria. An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official also stated that thirteen IRGC "military advisors" were killed and another twenty-one injured during clashes in Khan Touman south of Aleppo City in one of the largest single-day combat losses suffered by Iran in Syria. Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and allied groups in the Jaysh al-Fatah Operations Room seized Khan Touman on May 6.