Aleppo on edge: Rebels push back, Russia ramps up support
On Saturday, Syrian authorities closed Aleppo's airport and all roads leading to the city, three military sources told Reuters. Islamist rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad declared that they had "reached the heart of Aleppo." Russia reportedly bombed the militants' positions.
Opposition fighters, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (a Sunni coalition of Islamist, jihadist, and terrorist groups), launched a surprise offensive this week on government-controlled cities and reached Aleppo. This occurred almost a decade after they were driven out by Assad and his allies.
Russia, one of Assad's key allies, promised Damascus additional military aid to hold back the rebels, two military sources reported, adding that new equipment is expected to arrive within the next three days.
The Syrian army was ordered to conduct a "safe withdrawal" from the main areas of the city occupied by the rebels, three army sources reported.
Vladimir Solovyov, a top Kremlin propagandist, posted a video on his Telegram channel purportedly showing a "strike on militants in Syria," which was conducted by the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The rebels launched their offensive on Wednesday, and by Friday, the operations command announced that they were taking over more districts of Aleppo. They returned to the city for the first time since 2016, when Assad and his allies—Russia, Iran, and regional Shiite militias—retook it, and the rebels agreed to withdraw after months of bombings and siege.
Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander of the rebel brigade Jaish al-Izza, said the lack of Iranian force support in the broader Aleppo area enabled the swift advance. Iran's allies in the region have suffered a series of setbacks due to Israeli actions during the escalation of war in Gaza in the Middle East.
Opposition fighters stated that the campaign was a response to intensified attacks against civilians by Russian and Syrian air forces in rebel-controlled Idlib areas and an attempt to pre-empt Syrian army attacks.
Opposition sources in contact with Turkish intelligence reported that Turkey, supporting the rebels, gave the green light for the offensive. However, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oncu Keceli, said on Friday that Turkey seeks to avoid further destabilisation in the region and warned that recent attacks undermine de-escalation agreements.
The attack is the largest since March 2020, when Russia and Turkey reached a de-escalation agreement.
Civilians killed in clashes
On Friday, Syrian state television denied that rebels had reached the city and stated that Russia is supporting Syria's armed forces from the air. The Syrian military announced that it is fighting off the attack and has inflicted significant losses on insurgents in rural Aleppo and Idlib areas.
The Syrian news agency SANA reported that on Friday four civilians, including two students, were killed in Aleppo due to the shelling of dormitories by insurgents. It was unclear if they were among the 27 fatalities reported by the UN representative.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow views the rebel attack as a violation of Syrian sovereignty. — We stand for the Syrian authorities to restore order in the area as soon as possible and re-establish constitutional order, he stated.
source: PAP / Reuters / CNN / Sky News
