Damascus, Dec 4 (Reporter) Terrorists and opposition forces in Syria now control territory that is home to 7 million people, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen has said. "A vast swath of territory has come under the control of non-state actors, including the Security Council-listed terrorist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, [formerly known as the Nusra Front, banned in Russia], and armed opposition groups, including the Syrian National Army. These groups now de facto control territory containing what we estimate to be some 7 million people, including Aleppo, Syria's second biggest city, and the vast and diverse metropolis of more than 2 million people," Pedersen told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group and a number of other armed groups launched a large-scale operation against the Syrian government on November 29, advancing from the north of the northwestern region of Idlib towards the cities of Aleppo and Hama. A day later, Aleppo came under the complete control of the militants for the first time since the beginning of the conflict in the country in 2011. The Syrian army command announced on December 1 that the advance of the terrorists in the region of Hama had been stopped and government troops had launched a counteroffensive, taking control of a number of settlements previously seized by militants...////...