A fighter inspects a captured Syrian army rocket launcher in the Khan Assal area of northern Syria’s Aleppo province on November 29, 2024, an area occupied by jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies.
Aref Watad | AFP | Getty Images
Syrian authorities closed Aleppo’s airport and all roads leading to the city on Saturday, three military sources told Reuters, as rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad said they had reached the city. center.
Opposition fighters led by Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham carried out surprise attacks on government-controlled towns this week, arriving in Aleppo nearly a decade after being ousted by Assad and his allies.
Russia, one of Assad’s main allies, has pledged additional military aid to Damascus to thwart the rebels, with new hardware set to begin arriving in the next 72 hours, two military sources said.
Three military sources said Syrian troops have been told to comply with orders for a “safe withdrawal” from key areas of the city where rebels have entered.
The rebel incursion began on Wednesday and by Friday evening, an operations room representing the offensive said they were sweeping through neighborhoods in Aleppo.
It was their first return to the city since 2016, when Assad and his allies Russia, Iran and regional Shiite militias retook the city and the rebels agreed to withdraw after months of bombing and siege.
Mustafa Abdul Jaber, commander of the Jaish al-Izza rebel brigade, said their rapid advance this week was aided by a lack of Iranian-backed manpower within Aleppo province. As the war in Gaza spreads across the Middle East, Iran’s allies in the region have suffered a series of strikes from Israel.
Opposition fighters said the operation was in response to Russian and Syrian air forces stepping up strikes against civilians in the rebel-held Idlib region in recent weeks and as a pre-emptive strike to prevent any attacks by the Syrian army.
Opposition sources with links to Turkish intelligence said rebel-backing Türkiye had given the green light for the offensive.
But Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Onku Keceli said on Friday that Turkey was trying to avoid greater instability in the region and warned that the latest attacks undermined the de-escalation agreement.
The attack was the largest since March 2020, when Russia and Türkiye agreed to a deal to de-escalate the conflict.
civilians killed in fighting
On Friday, Syrian state television denied that rebels had arrived in the city and said Russia was providing air support to Syrian forces.
The Syrian military said it was countering the attack and inflicting heavy losses on rebels in Aleppo and the Idlib countryside.
“We are deeply alarmed by the situation unfolding in northwest Syria,” said David Cardon, the United Nations’ deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syrian crisis.
“Relentless attacks over the past three days have claimed the lives of at least 27 civilians, including children as young as 8 years old.”
Syrian state news agency SANA said four civilians, including two students, were killed on Friday when rebels shelled a university dormitory in Aleppo. It was unclear whether they were among the 27 dead reported by U.N. officials.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow considered the rebel attack a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
“We support the Syrian authorities to restore order in the region and restore constitutional order as soon as possible,” he said.
