Eight years after forces loyal to Damascus took control of the city, Islamic militants have stormed into Syria's second city, Aleppo.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters launched a major offensive earlier this week from a base in Idlib, a strip of land in northwestern Syria. The fighting reached Aleppo in just three days, with rebels capturing territory around the city's outskirts for the first time in four years as Syrian government forces shelled rebel-held areas.
Turkey's Anadolu state news agency reported Friday afternoon that rebels had entered Aleppo, but unverified images and videos circulating online showed armored vehicles and militants in armed uniforms on the streets. . According to the Associated Press, residents reported that a missile had landed in their suburb.
Jihadists and their allies have captured “half of the city of Aleppo,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights War Observatory, told Agence France-Presse early Saturday, adding: “There is no fighting going on.” Ta. Not a single shot was fired as the regime forces withdrew. ”
Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport and all roads leading into the city on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing three military officials.
David Carden, the United Nations' acting regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, told Reuters that 27 civilians, including eight children, had been killed in the past three days of fighting.
The rebels quickly recaptured dozens of towns and villages in the Aleppo countryside, seizing military bases, weapons and tanks from Syrian government forces, as well as Turkish forces based elsewhere in northwestern Syria. Some supported Syrian rebel groups also joined the fighting.
Damascus-based Syrian government forces have carried out at least 125 airstrikes and shellings across Idlib and western Aleppo in response to the rebel offensive, killing at least 12 civilians and killing 46 others, according to the United Nations. It was announced that 14,000 people were evacuated and 14,000 people were injured.
Syria has been promised additional military aid from Russia to help thwart the Syrian attack, two Syrian military officials told Reuters on Saturday. The Damascus government expects new Russian military equipment to begin arriving at Russia's Hmeimim air base near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia within the next 72 hours, the official added.
HTS announced on Friday that it had captured four more towns, including Mansoura, eight miles from central Aleppo. Syria's state news agency announced that four civilians were killed when rebel projectiles collided inside a student dormitory in the city.
“The regime's defenses collapsed and I think they were taken by surprise. No one expected the rebels to reach the edge of Aleppo so quickly,” said Daleen of the nonprofit International Crisis Group.・Khalifa said.
He added that it remains unclear whether the rebels will be able to hold on to large swathes of occupied territory or how Russian forces, which support Bashar al-Assad's government in Damascus, will respond.
Türkiye's Foreign Ministry called for calm in the area around Idlib and called for an end to attacks on the region. “For Türkiye, it is most important to avoid further major instability and ensure that civilians are not harmed,” he said.
A popular uprising against Assad's regime was violently crushed in 2011, sparking a bloody civil war that has plagued the country for more than a decade. President Assad has maintained a fragile grip on power with support from Russia and Iran. The 2016 battle for Aleppo saw forces loyal to Damascus regain control of the city, marking a watershed moment for Assad's rule over the country.
But Syria's delicate balance of power has been increasingly tested over the past year as the regional fallout from the battle between Israel and Iranian proxy group Hamas in the Gaza Strip grows.
Israel has dramatically escalated its airstrikes against Iranian forces on the ground in Syria, carrying out more than 116 airstrikes on Syrian territory, killing more than 100 people, according to the United Nations, while recent fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 500,000 people. People are forced to flee to neighboring countries. Syria.
The increase in Israeli attacks has put Iranian forces in Syria on the defensive, allowing the rebels to take advantage of a moment when various proxies supporting Assad are more active elsewhere.
Khalifa said Moscow remains primarily focused on fighting in Ukraine. “The Russians are distracted in Ukraine. They have little political, if not military, investment in Syria,” she said. “It is difficult to predict what the outcome of this attack will be. The rebels believe the other side is vulnerable and has leverage.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Moscow considers the rebel attack a violation of Syria's sovereignty and hopes authorities act quickly to regain control.
Turkey supports rebel groups along Syria's northern border, but has recently sought to normalize relations with Assad and has not yet publicly intervened in the fighting.
HTS announced that it would target Iranian forces fighting alongside Syrian government forces as part of its latest attack. Iran's Tasnim News Agency said A Revolutionary Guards commander was killed in western Aleppo later this week.
The fighting and airstrikes appear to have crippled many fragile service networks across rebel-held areas of Idlib, forcing the closure of health services and other infrastructure. supporting millions of people They seek refuge there.
