Syria: Rebels claim to have entered Aleppo city in biggest attack against Bashar al-Assad’s government in years
image Source, reuters
- Author, rafi berg
- Author title, BBC Middle East Editor
A group of Syrian rebels say they have entered Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, in the biggest attack against the government in years.,
A video posted on a channel affiliated with an Islamic terrorist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) It appears to be showing his fighters in vehicles inside Aleppo. team of bbc verification was able to trace the origin of the images to the city’s western suburbs.
This is the first time that the rebels are fighting against the President’s army Bashar Al Assad They have been arriving in Aleppo since being expelled by the army in 2016.
Meanwhile, government forces say they have regained positions in several cities in the province Aleppo and IdlibFollowing the offensive launched by HTS and allied groups on Wednesday.
more than half Millions of people died in the civil war Which erupted in 2011 after the government suppressed pro-democracy protests.
A range of armed groups opposed to Assad’s government – including jihadists – took advantage of the unrest to seize large swathes of the region.
With the help of the Syrian government Russia And with other allies, he later recovered most of his lost territories.
Idlib, the opposition’s last stronghold, is largely under the control of HTS, but Turkish-backed rebel groups and Turkish forces are also based there.
what is the situation?
“Our forces have begun to enter the city of Aleppo,” said a statement issued by the rebels this Friday.
bbc verified video They show armed men running down a street in the city center, about 7 kilometers from Aleppo’s medieval citadel.
Other verified images showed large groups of people carrying belongings leaving an area near Aleppo University. The video was recorded 3 km away from where HTS-affiliated media outlets claim rebel forces entered the city.
The government says reinforcements have already arrived in Aleppo and are expelling the rebels.
image Source, getty images
The Britain-based analysis group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which uses a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported that Syrian and Russian aircraft carried out the strikes. 23 air strikes This Friday in the Aleppo area.
OSDH also noted 255 people died in the fightingIt is the deadliest conflict between rebels and pro-government forces in Syria in years.
Fighting in Idlib had largely subsided since 2020, when Syria’s main allies Turkey and Russia negotiated a ceasefire to halt a government offensive to retake the province.
But on Wednesday the HTS group and its allies said they had launched their own offensive to “stop the aggression”, blaming the government and allied militias for rising tensions in the region.
The Syrian government and its allies are also monitoring other conflicts.
in the neighbor lebanonThe Israeli military campaign has devastated the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, whose fighters helped turn the tide of the Syrian civil war.
israel has also intensified it air strikes inside syria Against targets associated with Iran and Iranian-backed groups.
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