Jihadist rebels now control most of Aleppo city, a Syrian war monitor said Saturday, after Russian airstrikes reported on parts of Syria’s second city for the first time since 2016 .
Rebels have launched a fierce offensive against Iranian and Russian-backed Syrian government forces since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect after two months between Israel and Damascus’s ally Iran-backed Hezbollah group in neighboring Lebanon. Of total war.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and affiliated factions … took control of most of the city and government centers and prisons.”
HTS, a jihadist alliance led by al-Qaeda’s former Syrian branch, controls the Idlib region in Syria’s northwest, as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
Overnight, Russian “warplanes launched raids on areas of Aleppo city for the first time since 2016”, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
This raised the death toll in days of clashes to 311 – 183 from HTS and allied Turkish-backed factions, 100 soldiers and pro-government forces, as well as 28 civilians.
State media reported that four civilians were killed when HTS shelled a student residence in Aleppo, a city of about two million people that was Syria’s pre-war manufacturing hub.
Iran-backed militias have a heavy presence in the Aleppo area after providing crucial ground support when the Syrian Army, backed by Russian air power, recaptured rebel-held areas of the city in 2016.
cheering
An AFP correspondent saw rebels celebrating and cheering inside Aleppo late Friday. Another correspondent saw anti-government fighters in front of the city’s historic citadel.
The Observatory said that “the governor of Aleppo and police and security branch commanders withdrew from the city centre”.
After reports on Friday that jihadists and their allies had captured more than 50 towns and villages in the north, the Observatory said the overnight airstrikes coincided with the “arrival of large (rebel) military forces” in the area. .
A Syrian security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP on Friday that reinforcements had arrived in Aleppo, while an army statement said troops had launched an attack on the city. Have thwarted and captured some positions.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP early Saturday that rebel fighters quickly captured large parts of Aleppo without facing significant resistance, adding, “There was no fighting, not a single shot was fired, because The government forces retreated.”
The Observatory said the jihadists and their allies made other advances in the north, including capturing the strategically located town of Saraqib, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest on the road to Aleppo.
The Russian military said on Friday it was bombing “extremist” forces, as Turkey demanded a halt to bombing the Idlib region.
Since 2020, the Idlib region has been subject to a ceasefire brokered by Türkiye and Russia, which has largely held despite repeated violations.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
