Syria: The army admits the advance of jihadists in Aleppo

The Syrian army said on Saturday that dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major offensive by rebels who stormed the northwestern city of Aleppo, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule in years.

The fighting is igniting on the Syrian front as the wider Middle East region is rocked by wars in Gaza and Lebanon, where a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.

The surprise attack led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rocked the front lines in the civil war, largely frozen since 2020, reigniting fighting in a corner of the fractured country near the Turkish border. Assad’s army says it is preparing a counter-offensive to restore state power.

Acknowledging the rebel advance, the Syrian army command said the rebels had entered large parts of Aleppo, which has been under full government control since Russian and Iranian-backed government forces drove out the rebels eight years ago .

Images from Aleppo showed a group of rebel fighters gathered in Saadallah al-Jabiri Square after entering the city overnight, with an Assad billboard visible behind them.

“I am the son of Aleppo, and I was displaced from it eight years ago, in 2016. Thank God, we have just returned. It is an indescribable feeling,” said Ali Juba, a rebel, according to television footage.

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

The Syrian army added that the shelling prevented the rebels from establishing stable positions. He promised to “drive them out and restore state control…over the entire city and its countryside”.

Two rebel sources said the rebels also captured the town of Maraat al-Numan in Idlib province, bringing the entire province under their control, which if true is another major blow to Assad.

The attack was launched from rebel-held areas of northwest Syria that remain out of Assad’s hands.

Two Syrian military sources said Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted rebels in a suburb of Aleppo on Saturday.

Speaking on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow viewed the rebel attack as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty. “We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the region and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible,” he said.

The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating in opposition-held areas of Syria, said in a post on X that Syrian government and Russian warplanes carried out airstrikes on residential districts, a gas station and a school in Idlib that controlled by the rebels, killing four civilians and injuring six others.

The two Syrian military sources said Russia has promised Damascus additional military aid that will begin arriving in the next 72 hours. Authorities closed Aleppo’s airport and roads into the city, the two military sources and a third military source said.

The Syrian army has been called to follow orders for a “safe withdrawal” from the main areas of the city where the rebels had entered, the three military sources said.

Iran’s role – Turkey’s attitude

Rebels, including Turkish-backed factions, said on Friday that their fighters were advancing rapidly in several neighborhoods in Aleppo.

Mustafa Abdul Jaber, commander of the Jaish al-Izza rebel brigade, said their rapid advance was aided by a lack of Iranian-backed manpower to support the government in the wider Aleppo province.

Iran’s allies in the region have suffered a series of blows from Israel as the war in Gaza has spread across the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arahtsi, in a phone call with his Syrian counterpart on Friday, accused the United States and Israel of being behind the rebel attack.

Opposition fighters said the campaign was in response to intensified strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces in areas of Idlib province and to pre-empt any attacks by the Syrian army.

Opposition sources in contact with Turkish intelligence said Turkey, which backs the rebels, gave the “green light” to the attack. Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment on Saturday.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Friday that clashes between rebels and government forces had resulted in an unwanted escalation of tension.
In a statement, spokesman Onsu Keseli noted that “preventing further instability in the region is Turkey’s priority,” adding that “Ankara had warned that the recent attacks in Idlib undermined the spirit and implementation of the de-escalation agreements.” ‘.