By The Associated Press’s Sarah el Deeb
BEIRUT — In a surprise offensive that left inhabitants fleeing and brought further uncertainty to an area already reeling from several wars, insurgents broke into Syria’s largest city on Friday and engaged government forces in combat for the first time since 2016, according to fighters and a war monitor.
Aleppo’s advance came after insurgents launched a surprising onslaught on Wednesday, when thousands of fighters tore through towns and villages in the northwest of Syria. Witnesses in Aleppo reported that residents evacuated neighborhoods on the outside of the city due to gunfire and missiles. Dozens of fighters from both sides were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which keeps an eye on the nation’s ongoing civil war.
The incident added to the already existing violence in a region that was already dealing with Israel’s multiple wars in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as other conflicts including the 2011 start of the Syrian civil war.
Since they were driven out of eastern neighborhoods in 2016 after a bloody military assault in which Syrian government forces were supported by Russia, Iran, and its allies, opposition forces have not attacked Aleppo.
However, neither government soldiers nor their allies showed any indication of a major resistance this time. Rather, militants disseminated messages on social media urging troops to surrender, and tales surfaced of government forces disintegrating in the face of advances.
The strike demonstrated the tremendous weakness of Syrian government forces, according to Robert Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria. He claimed that in certain instances, they seem to have been nearly defeated.
The opposition factions, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Shamgroup, or HTS, made some of the biggest advances in recent years this week. The violence in northwest Syria is at its worst since 2020, when government forces took back regions that the opposition had previously held.
The offensive was launched when Iran-affiliated organizations, chiefly Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has supported Syrian government forces since 2015, were distracted with domestic conflicts.
On Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions declared their onslaught, Hezbollah’s two-month conflict with Israel came to an end. Over the past 70 days, Israel has also intensified its operations in Syria against sites connected to Iran and Hezbollah.
Friday, Nov. 29, 2024: Areas outside Aleppo, Syria, are taken over by opposition fighters. (Photo courtesy of Ghaith Alsayed)AP
The militants had been indicating for some time that they were prepared to launch an offensive, according to Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group and an authority on Syrian organizations. However, nobody anticipated how quickly the soldiers moved against Aleppo.
Not only are the Russians preoccupied and stuck in Ukraine, but the Iranians are also preoccupied and stuck in other places. “The regime is completely cornered, and Hezbollah is distracted and bogged down elsewhere,” she claimed. However, the abrupt fall of the dictatorship adds a surprise factor.
Weeks of low-level fighting, including government attacks on regions controlled by the opposition, preceded the Aleppo attack. The government attacks were perceived as a breach of a 2019 agreement negotiated by Russia, Turkey, and Iran to freeze the line of war, but Turkey, which has supported Syrian opposition organizations, was unable to stop them diplomatically.
According to Turkish security authorities on Thursday, strikes against civilians started as part of a long-planned, limited offensive by Syrian opposition groups into Aleppo. But as Syrian government forces started to withdraw from their positions, the offensive grew, the officials claimed.
According to Turkish officials, the offensive was intended to restore the de-escalation zone’s borders.
After protests against Bashar Assad’s administration in 2011 escalated into a full-scale conflict, the 2016 battle for Aleppo marked a turning point in the conflict between rebel fighters and Syrian government forces.
That year, following a weeks-long siege and a taxing military battle, Syrian government forces were assisted by Russia, Iran, and its allies in regaining control of the city.
Turkey has a military presence in Syria and has sent troops into areas of the northwest in addition to supporting opposition groups. The United States has backed Syrian Kurdish forces in their struggle against Islamic State extremists, mostly in Syria’s east.
Regarding the terrorists’ breach of the municipal borders of Aleppo, the Syrian government remained silent.
The Kremlin stated on Friday that it backed the earliest possible reinstatement of constitutional order in the region and that it saw the attack as an infringement on Syria’s sovereignty.
Syrian sovereignty in this area is obviously being violated, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated during a press briefing.
In a statement released on Friday, Syria’s military claimed to have destroyed heavy weapons and drones during battles with terrorists in the countryside near Aleppo and Idlib. They accused the militants of disseminating misleading information about their advances and pledged to repel the attack.
The terrorists set up two vehicle bombs on Friday near Aleppo’s western border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Saraqeb, a town south of Aleppo at the key juncture of the highways connecting Aleppo with Damascus and the coast, was also taken over by terrorists, according to the war monitor. Authorities from the Syrian government rerouted traffic on that roadway on Thursday.
On social media, a rebel commander shared a taped message urging Aleppo citizens to assist the oncoming troops.
According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, the rebels took over the city center on Friday and currently hold control of roughly 70 areas in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib.
According to Syria’s official media, four people—two of them were students—were killed when insurgent missiles fell into student housing at Aleppo University in the city center.
The terrorists are allegedly breaking a 2019 deal that de-escalated violence in the region, which has been the last resistance stronghold for years, according to Syrian military troops.
According to Rami Abdurrahman, chairman of the Observatory, Hezbollah was the primary force behind the government’s control of Aleppo.
After the regime’s defeat in Lebanon and Palestine, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called his Syrian counterpart and characterized the rebel attacks in Syria as a plan by the Zionist regime and the United States.
On Friday, November 29, 2024, a damaged Syrian Government military truck was spotted near Kafr Halab, Aleppo countryside, Syria. (Photo courtesy of Ghaith Alsayed)AP
Videos of the insurgents employing drones, a new weapon for them, were uploaded online. The scope of the drones’ use on the battlefield was unclear.
Early Friday, insurgents used drones to strike a military airbase southeast of Aleppo, destroying a helicopter, according to the Anadolu Agency. According to the agency, the government forces’ military vehicles and heavy weapons were also taken by the opposition parties.
This article was written by Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey.
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