Aleppo authorities have closed the airport and all roads leading to the city, Reuters reports citing sources.
Government troops were ordered to “cautiously withdraw” from the main areas of the city where the militants had entered, the agency’s interlocutors said.
Geolocated video footage from CNN, one of which shows militants waving a Syrian opposition flag in Aleppo’s deserted central Saadallah al-Jabiri square. In the second video, a fighter lowers the Syrian flag from the mast near the statue. Basel al-Assadthe president’s late brother Bashar al-Assadin the eastern end of the New Aleppo district.
The channel also broadcasts a message from militants who announced the takeover of a military research center on the outskirts of the city.
The groups control more than 40% of Aleppo’s western neighborhoods, Al Mayadeen television channel reports.
Militants have returned to Aleppo for the first time in eight years, since late 2016, when the Syrian army, with Russian support, liberated the city. Since then it has not been attacked. The current escalation has become the largest since 2020, when the parties agreed to a ceasefire mediated by Russia and Türkiye, RBC recalls.
