Syrian Rebels Launch New Offensive and Take Aleppo
Syrian rebel forces entered Aleppo on Friday, with the third day of an offensive seeing them reenter the city for the first time since 2016.
Rebel groups led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and embedded journalists uploaded photographs of them in and around landmarks like the University of Aleppo campus and Basel Square.
The fighters had entered the western outskirts of the city the day before, making rapid advances from their starting points in Idlib Governorate. Photographs and videos of their advances over the past two days show abandoned Syrian regime positions stocked with ammunition, as well as abandoned tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and the factions fighting alongside it, launched the offensive on Tuesday, with a joint statement that its “Deterring Aggression” offensive was intended to deny Syrian regime forces the ability to mount continued attacks on civilians in Idlib with a preemptive strike on regime positions.
Syrian regime forces have conducted sporadic shelling of civilian settlements in Idlib since a 2020 ceasefire imposed following a Turkish intervention that halted a regime offensive, but in recent months have begun using increasing numbers of first person view drones in attacks on civilians in Idlib and rebel-held parts of Aleppo governorate.
While Syrian regime forces have not appeared to have put up significant resistance to rebel advances, Syrian regime artillery and Russian Air Force aircraft have mounted attacks on civilian residential areas in Idlib. According to Syria’s Civil Defense, Russian and Syrian airstrikes on Friday killed four civilians and injured 25 others.
Verifiable details on combatant casualties on both sides are limited. Individuals alleged to be Russian special forces operators have been captured or killed by rebel fighters, with photographs of the captured or dead operators and their equipment uploaded online by pro-rebel media. Iranian state media has also reported the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi during the offensive.
Syrian rebels were forced out of Aleppo in December 2016, following a four year battle that saw regime forces backed by Russian air power and Hezbollah fighters resort to indiscriminate bombardment and use of chemical weapons, destroying much of rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Now it appears that the rebels are poised to push regime forces back well beyond the city.