Aleppo, Syria, slipping out of regime control, says NGO

Photo: Muhammad Hay Kadour Agence France-Presse Anti-government fighters pose for a photo on a tank on the road to Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, northwest Syria, on November 30, 2024.

Layal Abou Rahal – Agence France-Presse

Published at 8:16 a.m.

• Middle East

Aleppo, Syria's second city, is no longer under regime control for the first time since 2011, an NGO announced on Sunday after a lightning offensive launched by a coalition of rebel groups led by Islamists.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised after this offensive to use “force” to eradicate “terrorism”.

Rebel fighters launched an offensive on Wednesday against government forces, supported by Russia and Iran, in northwestern Syria, seizing dozens of towns before reaching Aleppo, the country’s economic hub, dominated by its historic citadel.

The start of this offensive coincided with the entry into force of a truce in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Syria and Iran.

More than 370 people in total have been killed, according to the SOHR, a UK-based NGO that relies on a vast network of sources in Syria.

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These battles are the first of this scale since 2020 in Syria, where the civil war that began in 2011, involving belligerents supported by different regional and international powers, and jihadist groups, has left a country fragmented into several zones of influence.

With crucial military support from Russia and Iran, the Syrian regime launched a counter-offensive in 2015 that allowed it to gradually regain control of a large part of the country, and in 2016 the entire city of Aleppo.

The jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies “control the city of Aleppo, with the exception of the neighborhoods controlled by Kurdish forces. For the first time since the start of the conflict in 2011, Aleppo is out of the control of the Syrian regime forces,” Rami Abdel Rahmane, the director of the SOHR, told AFP on Sunday.

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Russian air strikes killed five people on Sunday near the city’s university and four in Idlib, another city in the northwest, according to the NGO.

“We heard an explosion and the walls fell on us. “I saw two of my grandchildren next to me and I took them away,” a woman, Umm Mohamad, who lost her daughter-in-law, a mother of five, told AFP from her hospital bed in Idlib.

“No resistance”

HTS, dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, and Syrian rebel factions, some supported by Turkey, launched an offensive on Wednesday from the Idlib region, neighboring that of Aleppo, their last bastion escaping the regime.

They entered Aleppo on Friday, taking most of it on Saturday “without encountering any significant resistance”, according to the SOHR, reaching the citadel and seizing government buildings, prisons and the international airport.

The rebels marched in the streets, set up their flag in front of a police station and tore down a portrait of Mr Assad, according to AFP images.

According to the SOHR, the rebels also advanced on Saturday in the provinces of Idlib and Hama, a little further south, taking control of “dozens of strategic localities without any resistance”.

The Syrian army has reinforced its deployment around the city of Hama, the SOHR announced on Sunday.

The army confirmed the presence of rebel fighters in “large parts” of Aleppo and deplored “dozens” of dead and wounded in the offensive.

Iran “firmly supports the army and the government” of this country, affirmed its head of diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, on Sunday before leaving for Damascus.

Tehran also called on Saturday for “coordination” with Moscow in the face of this offensive.

The White House has judged that the Syrian regime is suffering the consequences of “its refusal” to engage in a political dialogue and its “dependence on Russia and Iran”.

The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, affirmed on Sunday his support for the “territorial integrity” of Syria.

Northwestern Syria has enjoyed an uneasy calm in recent years under a ceasefire sponsored by Moscow and Ankara, established after a regime offensive in March 2020.

Curfew

“The regime lines have collapsed at an incredible pace, which has taken everyone by surprise,” said Dareen Khalifa, an expert at the International Crisis Group.

The rebels have imposed a 24-hour curfew in Aleppo, until 5 p.m. Sunday (1400 GMT).

HTS and rebels control swathes of entire parts of Idlib province, as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.

For their part, the Kurds of Syria have established an autonomous administration with a military force in large areas of the northeast of the country.

Several districts in northern Aleppo are populated mainly by Syrian Kurds under the authority of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the armed wing of the autonomous administration supported by the United States.

The Turkish army, which controls several areas of northern Syria after having expelled Kurdish forces, had called on Friday for an “end” to the “attacks” on Idlib following Russian and Syrian raids.