The Syrian army said on Saturday that dozens of its soldiers were killed in a major attack on the city of Aleppo led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, repositioning the army as its biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad. Had to happen. Year.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air force had carried out strikes against Syrian rebels in support of the country’s military, Russian news agencies reported. The attacks followed the boldest rebel offensive for years in the civil war, where front lines have been largely frozen since 2020.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, once known as the Nusra Front, has been designated a terrorist group by the US, Russia, Turkey and other states. Assad is a close ally of Moscow.
In Washington, the White House National Security Council said it was closely monitoring the situation and had been in touch with regional capitals over the past 48 hours.
NSC spokesman Sean Savett said Syria’s refusal to engage in the political process and its dependence on Russia and Iran “have led to the conditions now unfolding, including the collapse of the Assad regime in northwestern Syria “
Savett said the US had no involvement with the attack led by a “designated terrorist organisation” and urged “de-escalation and a serious and credible political process” under the 2015 UN Security Council Resolution 2254. , who took steps. For a ceasefire and political change.
The war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced many millions, has continued without a formal end since 2011, although much of the conflict ended after Iran and Russia helped Assad’s government regain control of most of the land and all major cities. The big fight was stopped years ago.
Aleppo has been firmly held by the government since its 2016 victory, one of the major turning points of the war, when Russia-backed Syrian forces besieged and destroyed rebel-held eastern areas of the country’s largest city. Did it.
“I am a son of Aleppo and was displaced from there eight years ago in 2016. Thank God we just came back. It’s an indescribable feeling,” Ali Jumaa, a rebel fighter, said in television footage filmed inside the city. “
Acknowledging rebel gains, the Syrian Army Command said rebels had entered most of Aleppo.
The army said it was preparing a counter-attack, following airstrikes targeting rebel gatherings and convoys in the city, pro-Damascus newspaper al-Watan reported. One resident told Reuters there were casualties in an attack in Aleppo’s Besal Square.
The state-run Russian Center for Reconciliation of Entities in Syria said missile and bomb attacks against rebels had targeted “terrorist concentrations, command posts, depots and artillery positions” in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It claimed that about 300 rebel fighters had been killed.
Pictures filmed on Saturday showed people posing for photos at the fallen statue of Basil al-Assad, the president’s late brother. The fighters moved around the city in trucks and roamed the streets. A man waves a Syrian opposition flag while standing near the historic Citadel of Aleppo.
The Syrian military command said the militants had attacked in large numbers and from multiple directions, prompting “our armed forces to launch a re-operation aimed at repelling the attack, strengthening defense lines to protect the lives of civilians and soldiers.” Motivated to conduct deployment campaign”.
Rebels also took control of Aleppo airport, according to a statement from their operations room and a security source.
Two rebel sources also said that rebels had captured the town of Maarat al Numan in Idlib province, bringing the entire area under their control.
The fighting revives the long-running Syrian conflict as the wider region is engulfed by war in Gaza and Lebanon, where a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.
Assad is backed by Russia and Iran, and Turkey is supporting some rebels in the northwest, where it has stationed its forces, The offensive has focused attention on the complex geopolitics of the conflict. Fighting in the northwest had largely subsided after Turkey and Russia reached an agreement to reduce tensions in 2020.
Russian, Turkish ministers talk
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan and discussed the situation in Syria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
“Both sides expressed grave concern over the alarming development of the situation,” the ministry said. They agreed that it is necessary to coordinate joint actions to stabilize the situation in the country.
Turkish security officials said Thursday that Ankara had halted operations that opposition groups wanted to organize to avoid further tensions in the region.
Iranian state media said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lavrov in a phone call that the rebel attacks were part of an Israel-US plan to destabilize the region.
Syrian government and Russian aircraft carried out airstrikes on residential areas in rebel-held Idlib, killing four civilians, the Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue service that works in opposition-held parts of Syria, said in a post on Twitter. And six others were injured.
Two Syrian military sources said Russia has promised additional military aid to Damascus which will begin arriving within the next 72 hours.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which leads the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, control much of northeast and eastern Syria and have long held out in Aleppo, a senior YPG source said. , has increased its control in the city after government troops left. Said.
Mustafa Abdul Jaber, commander of the Jaish al-Izza rebel brigade, said the rebels’ rapid advance was helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower to support the government in the wider Aleppo province.
Iran’s regional allies have suffered several setbacks at the hands of Israel as the Gaza war spills over into the Middle East.
Opposition fighters have said the operation was in response to increased attacks in recent weeks by Russian and Syrian air forces against civilians in areas of Idlib province and to deter any further attacks by the Syrian army.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
