Syrian regime loses Aleppo for first time since civil struggle started

An Islamist-dominated insurgent alliance has pressed a lightning offensive in opposition to forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian authorities since Wednesday, the identical day a fragile ceasefire took impact in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after two months of all-out struggle.

The Syrian military — supported by Russian air energy — had recaptured in 2016 rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a metropolis dominated by its landmark citadel.

Damascus additionally relied on Hezbollah fighters to regain swathes of Syria misplaced to rebels early within the struggle which started in 2011 when the federal government crushed protests. However Hezbollah has taken heavy losses in its battle with Israel.

The jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied insurgent factions “management Aleppo metropolis, besides the neighbourhoods managed by the Kurdish forces,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, advised AFP.

For the primary time for the reason that battle began, “Aleppo metropolis is uncontrolled of Syrian regime forces,” Abdel Rahman mentioned.

A number of northern districts inside Aleppo are predominantly inhabited by Syrian Kurds below authority of the Folks’s Safety Models (YPG), the principle part of the Syrian Democratic forces.

The SDF are the de facto military within the semi-autonomous Kurdish area of northeast Syria. They’re a US-backed power that spearheaded combating in opposition to the Islamic State group jihadists earlier than IS’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.

Individually, the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied insurgent factions seized Aleppo’s airport and dozens of close by cities on Saturday after overrunning most of Aleppo, the Observatory mentioned.

Tanks seized

Damascus ally Moscow responded with its first air strikes on Aleppo since 2016.

Previous to this offensive, HTS, led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria department, already managed swathes of the Idlib area, the final space outdoors President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities management, in Syria’s northwest.

HTS additionally held elements of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. Allied Turkish-backed insurgent factions have additionally been collaborating within the offensive.

The combating has killed greater than 370 folks, most of them combatants but additionally together with a minimum of 48 civilians, in line with the Observatory, which has a community of sources inside Syria.

The Observatory mentioned insurgent advances got here with little resistance.

AFP pictures confirmed fighters posing with seized tanks.

The Observatory on Sunday mentioned the military strengthened its positions round Syria’s fourth largest metropolis Hama, about 230 kilometres (140 miles) south of Aleppo, and despatched reinforcements to the north of the encompassing province.

Syria’s defence ministry mentioned military items in Hama province “strengthened their defensive traces with numerous means of fireside, tools and personnel”, combating to stop a insurgent advance.

Rebels took dozens of cities throughout the north, together with Khan Sheikhun and Maaret al-Numan, roughly midway between Aleppo and Hama, the Observatory mentioned.

Some welcomed the rebels’ arrival.

“Yesterday was my wedding ceremony however I didn’t distribute sweets,” Khaled al-Yussef mentioned, holding up pastries beside a automobile. “I’m distributing them at this time in celebration of the liberation of Maaret al-Numan.”

‘Weak’ authorities

However in Idlib on Sunday, our bodies lay in a hospital and automobiles have been torched on the street, AFP pictures confirmed, after what the Observatory referred to as Russian air strikes.

Air strikes additionally occurred Saturday in Aleppo, the place an AFP photographer noticed charred automobiles, together with a minibus. Inside one automobile, the physique of a lady lay slumped within the again seat with a purse beside her.

Russian air strikes on elements of Syria’s second metropolis are the primary since 2016.

Aaron Stein, president of the US-based International Coverage Analysis Institute,” mentioned “Russia’s presence has thinned out significantly and fast response air strikes have restricted utility”.

He mentioned the insurgent advance is “a reminder of how weak the regime is”.

One other analyst, Dareen Khalifa of the Worldwide Disaster Group suppose tank, mentioned the insurgent alliance see their motion in a “broader regional and geostrategic shift”, together with when “the Iranians are weakened”.

Syria’s “reliance on Russia and Iran”, together with its refusal to maneuver ahead with a 2015 peace course of outlined by the UN Safety Council, “created the situations now unfolding”, mentioned US Nationwide Safety Council spokesman Sean Savett.

America maintains a whole lot of troops in Syria’s northeast as a part of an anti-jihadist coalition.

Diplomacy

Iran’s prime diplomat, International Minister Abbas Araghchi, left Tehran for Damascus to ship what state media mentioned can be a message of assist for Syria’s authorities and armed forces.

Araghchi once more referred to as the shock insurgent offensive a plot by the USA and Israel and vowed that “the Syrian military will as soon as once more win”.

Assad vowed to defeat the “terrorists”, nevertheless huge their assaults.

“Terrorism solely understands the language of power, and that’s the language which we’ll break it and get rid of it with, whoever its supporters and sponsors are,” he mentioned.

Russia, whose air assist was beforehand decisive in serving to Syria’s authorities win again misplaced territory, joined Iran in expressing “excessive concern” over their ally’s losses.

“Robust assist for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic was reaffirmed,” the Russian overseas ministry mentioned in a abstract of a name between its prime diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, and Araghchi.

Since 2020, the Idlib insurgent enclave has been topic to a Turkish- and Russian-brokered truce that had largely been holding regardless of repeated violations.

Lavrov additionally spoke along with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Saturday and agreed on the necessity to “coordinate joint motion to stabilise the state of affairs”, Moscow mentioned.