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Rebels stormed Syria’s second-largest city on Friday and clashed with government forces for the first time since 2016, according to war observers and fighters, in a surprise attack that sent residents fleeing and sparked fresh uncertainty in a region wracked by multiple wars.
The attack on Aleppo follows a shock offensive launched by rebels on Wednesday as thousands of fighters swept through villages and towns in Syria’s northwestern countryside. According to eyewitnesses, residents of Aleppo were fleeing neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city due to rockets and shelling.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country’s unresolved civil war, said dozens of fighters from both sides had been killed.
27 civilians, including eight children, have been killed in the fighting over the past three days, a UN official said on Friday.
The attack sparked renewed violence in the region, which is undergoing twin wars in Gaza and Lebanon involving Israel and other conflicts, including the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.
Opposition forces in Aleppo have not attacked since 2016, when they were driven from eastern neighborhoods after a grueling military campaign in which Syrian government forces were backed by Russia, Iran and allied groups.
But this time there was no sign of any significant pushback from the government forces or their allies. Instead, there were reports of government forces melting down in the face of the advance, and rebels posted messages on social media calling for troops to surrender.
WATCH | Militants begin offensive in Syria:
A UN official says at least 27 civilians have been killed in recent days after a militant group reported to be the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched attacks on towns and villages in Aleppo province.
Government forces “extremely weak”
Robert Ford, who was the last US ambassador to Syria, said the attack showed the Syrian government’s forces were “extremely weak”. In some cases, he said, they appear to be “almost diverted.”
This week’s advance was one of the biggest in years by opposition factions led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, and the heaviest fighting in northwest Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by the opposition.
The attack comes as Iran-linked groups, mainly Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has supported Syrian government forces since 2015, are busy fighting at home.
A truce in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect on Wednesday, the day Syrian opposition factions announced an offensive. Israel has also escalated attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-related targets in Syria in the last 70 days.
Darren Kalifa, a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group and an expert on Syrian factions, said the rebels had been signaling for some time that they were ready for an offensive. But no one expected the forces to advance quickly on Aleppo.
“It’s not just that the Russians are distracted and stuck in Ukraine, but the Iranians are distracted and stuck elsewhere. Hezbollah is distracted and stuck elsewhere, and the regime is absolutely cornered,” she said.
“But the element of surprise comes with how quickly the regime collapsed.”
Weeks of simmering, low-level violence
The assault in Aleppo followed weeks of simmering, low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas. Turkey, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, has failed in diplomatic efforts to prevent government attacks seen as a violation of a 2019 accord backed by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the course of the conflict.
Turkish security officials said Thursday that Syrian opposition groups had initially launched a long-planned “limited” offensive against Aleppo, where attacks on civilians began. However, the offensive expanded as Syrian government forces began retreating from their positions, the officials said.
According to Turkish officials, the objective of the offensive was to restore the borders of the de-escalation zone. The Syrian government did not comment on the rebels breaching the city limits of Aleppo.
The Kremlin said on Friday that it considers the attack an interference in Syria’s sovereignty and supports the establishment of constitutional order in the region as soon as possible.
“Of course, this is a violation of Syria’s sovereignty in the region,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press briefing.
Rebels now control 70 places: Turkish state media
The Syrian Armed Forces said in a statement on Friday that there had been clashes with rebels in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib, destroying drones and heavy weapons. They vowed to repel the attack and accused the rebels of spreading false information about their progress.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels detonated two car bombs on the western edge of Aleppo on Friday. The war monitor said the rebels also managed to seize control of Saraqeb, south of Aleppo, at a strategic junction for the highways linking Aleppo to Damascus and the coast. Syrian government authorities diverted traffic from that highway on Thursday.
A rebel commander posted a recorded message on social media, calling on the people of Aleppo to cooperate with the advancing forces.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency reported that rebels entered the city center on Friday and now control about 70 locations in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Syrian state media reported that rebel shells fell on student accommodation at Aleppo University in the center of the city, killing four people, including two students.
Syria’s armed forces said rebels were violating a 2019 deal that de-escalated fighting in the region, the last remaining opposition stronghold for years.
In a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi described the rebel attacks in Syria “as a conspiracy by the US and the Zionist regime after the defeat of the regime in Lebanon and Palestine.”
