The Islamist rebels of Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Jabhat Al-Shamiyah, and Nouriddeen Al-Zinki have received a new shipment of advanced missiles from their Gulf allies on Friday in order to help combat the pro-government forces that are advancing in the Aleppo Governorate’s northern countryside.

Recently, the Syrian Arab Army’s 154th Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division – alongside Hezbollah, the National Defense Forces (NDF), and several Iraqi paramilitary units – have captured several villages and hilltops that were once under Islamist rebel control, leaving the latter cutoff from their primary supply route along the Aleppo-Gaziantep Highway in northern Aleppo.

In order to bolster the defensive capabilities of their Islamist allies on the ground, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have equipped the hard-lined opposition forces with 122 mm grad rockets; these missiles possess a larger impact and farther range than the current missiles in their arsenal.

The traditional 122 mm grad rocket can travel as far as [correction] 40-45 km, making it a lethal weapon to fire towards government-controlled sites that the Islamist rebels currently do not have access to on the ground.

While the Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham militant displayed pictures of the recently arrived grad rockets; it is still not clear how many missiles they actually possess.