Syrian rebels sweep into Aleppo, Russia conducts strikes in support of Assad

Amman: Thousands of Syrian insurgents took over most of Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country’s largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their shock offensive to a nearby province, which has forced the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years.

The Syrian army said on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) dozens of its soldiers had been killed in the major attack, led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels – once known as the Nusra Front. HTS is designated a terrorist group by the US, Russia, Turkey and other nations.

Syrian opposition supporters stand on a captured Syrian army tank in the town of Maarat al-Numan on Saturday.Credit: AP

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air force had carried out strikes on Syrian rebels in support of the country’s army, Russian news agencies reported. The strikes followed what was the boldest rebel assault for years in a civil war where front lines had largely been frozen since 2020.

The swift and surprise offensive is a huge embarrassment for Assad and raised questions about his armed forces’ preparedness. The insurgent offensive launched from their stronghold in the country’s north-west appeared to have been planned for years. It also came at a time when Assad’s allies are preoccupied with their own conflicts.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said the US was monitoring the situation.

Syria’s civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced many millions, has ground on since 2011 with no formal end, although most major fighting halted years ago after Iran and Russia helped Assad’s government win control of most land and all major cities.

A defaced portrait of Syrian President Bashar Assad lies on the ground in the town of Maarat al-Numan.Credit: AP

Aleppo had been firmly held by the government since a 2016 victory there, one of the war’s major turning points, when Russian-backed Syrian forces besieged and laid waste to rebel-held eastern areas of what had been the country’s largest city.

“I am a son of Aleppo, and was displaced from it eight years ago, in 2016. Thank god we just returned. It is an indescribable feeling,” said Ali Jumaa, a rebel fighter, in television footage filmed inside the city.

Acknowledging the rebel advance, the Syrian army command said insurgents had entered much of Aleppo.

After the army said it was preparing a counterattack, airstrikes targeted rebel gatherings and convoys in the city, the pro-Damascus newspaper al-Watan reported. One strike caused casualties in Aleppo’s Basel square, a resident told Reuters.

The state-run Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of the Enemy Parties in Syria said missile and bomb strikes against the rebels had targeted “militant concentrations, command posts, depots, and artillery positions” in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It claimed about 300 rebel fighters were killed in the attacks.

Overnight, images from Aleppo showed a group of rebel fighters gathered in the city’s Saadallah al-Jabiri Square, with a billboard of Assad looming behind them.

Images filmed on Saturday showed people posing for photos on a toppled statue of Bassel al-Assad, the president’s late brother. Fighters zipped around the city in trucks and milled around in the streets. A man waved a Syrian opposition flag as he stood near Aleppo’s historic citadel.

The Syrian military command said militants had attacked in large numbers and from multiple directions, prompting “our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defence lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers”.

Syrian opposition fighters after entering the village of Anjara, on the western outskirts of Aleppo, on Thursday.Credit: AP

The rebels also took control of Aleppo airport, according to a statement by their operations room and a security source.

Two rebel sources also said the insurgents had captured the city of Maraat al-Numan in Idlib province, bringing all of that area under their control.

The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, while US-backed Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both groups are backed by Iran. A truce between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.

Robert Ford, the last-serving US ambassador to Syria, pointed to months of Israeli strikes on Syrian and Hezbollah targets in the area, and to Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon as factors providing Syria’s rebels with the opportunity to advance.

With Assad backed by Russia and Iran, and Turkey supporting some of the rebels in the north-west where it maintains troops, the offensive has brought into focus the conflict’s knotted geopolitics. Fighting in the north-west had largely abated since Turkey and Russia reached a de-escalation agreement in 2020.

Reuters

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