Syrian authorities closed Aleppo’s airport and all roads leading to the city on Saturday, they said. Reuters three military sources, while the rebels Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have said that They reached the heart of Aleppo.
Opposition fighters, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Levant Liberation Organization), carried out a surprise raid in government-controlled towns this week and arrived in Aleppo nearly a decade after being ousted by al-Assad and his allies.
Russia, one of Assad’s main allies, has promised Damascus additional military aid to thwart the rebels, two military sources said, adding that new equipment would begin arriving within the next 72 hours.
The Syrian army has been ordered to follow orders for a “safe withdrawal” from the main areas of the city that rebels have entered, three military sources said.
The rebels began their incursion on Wednesday and by Friday evening, an operations room representing the offensive said they were devastating several neighborhoods in Aleppo.
The rebels They return to town for the first time since 2016when Al-Assad and his allies Russia, Iran and regional Shiite militias retook it, and the insurgents agreed to withdraw after months of bombing and siege.
Mustafa Abdul Jaber, commander of the rebel Jaish al-Izza brigade, said its rapid advance this week had been aided by the lack of Iranian-backed manpower in the wider Aleppo province. Iran’s allies in the region suffered a series of blows from Israel as the war in Gaza spread across the Middle East.
Opposition fighters say campaign is underway response to intensified attacks in recent weeks against civilians by Russian and Syrian air forces in rebel-held areas of Idlib, and to prevent any attack by the Syrian army.
Opposition sources in contact with Turkish intelligence said Turkey, which supports the rebels, had given the green light to the offensive.
But Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said Friday that Turkey was seeking to avoid greater instability in the region and warned that recent attacks undermined de-escalation agreements.
It is the largest attack since March 2020, when Russia and Turkey agreed to a deal to de-escalate the conflict.
Dead civilians
Syrian state television on Friday denied that rebels had reached the town and said Russia was providing air support to the Syrian army. The Syrian army said it was fighting the attack and had inflicted significant losses for the insurgents in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib.
David Carden, United Nations deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syrian crisis, said: “We are deeply alarmed by the situation developing in northwest Syria.” “The incessant attacks of the last three days have cost the lives of at least at least 27 civiliansincluding children up to 8 years old.
Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that four civilians, including two students, were killed in Aleppo on Friday when insurgents bombed university student dormitories. It is unclear whether they were among the 27 deaths reported by the U.N. official.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Moscow considered the rebel attack a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
“We are in favor of the Syrian authorities restoring order in the region and constitutional order as quickly as possible,” he said.
