( CNN ) -- Syrian military forces have taken control of villages in the northern part of Aleppo , Syrian state news agency SANA reported Friday . Syrian army forces `` eliminated big numbers '' of militants and destroyed scores of vehicles used by them in three villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo , the news agency said , citing a military source . The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Friday that one of the seized villages , Handarat , which is crucial because it sits on a hill overlooking the only entry point into the area . The Observatory , however , later reported that rebels had retaken the hill of Handarat amid heavy clashes , which continued Friday . It is estimated that there are up to 300,000 people in the rebel-held areas , and it 's unclear if the militants will allow civilians to leave the war-torn region . The number of people who have fled Syria and registered as refugees amid the country 's civil war surpassed 3 million in August , and a further 6.5 million are believed to be displaced within the nation , the U.N. refugee agency has reported . The war , pitting an Alawite Muslim-dominated regime against a largely Sunni Muslim insurgency , has torn the country apart . Numerous factions , some of them Islamist , oppose the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , and one of them -- ISIS , or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria -- has captured large swaths of northern and eastern Syria for what it says is its new Islamic caliphate .
Syrian forces seize villages in the northern part of Aleppo , state news agency reports . Comment: