Syrian rebels have reached government-held Aleppo city in northwestern Syria following a surprise offensive that has left hundreds dead since Wednesday.
Fighters led by the al-Qaeda offshoot Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) managed to bomb Syria’s second city, according to state news and the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
At least 242 people, mostly combatants, have been killed in three days while HTS captured around 50 localities.
The SOHR said air strikes on Friday killed 24 civilians, including 19 in strikes by the Russian air force on rebel-held areas.
A security official told AFP that the Syrian army had “sent reinforcements” to Aleppo but said the attackers “have not reached the limits of the city”.
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However, the SOHR said they were “about two kilometres from the city of Aleppo” and that “artillery shells targeted a university residence.”
‘Response to the Aggression’
Fighting erupted at dawn on Wednesday when the rebels launched a surprise operation, named “Response to the Aggression”, in retaliation to the recent escalation of government shelling on rebel-held areas.
The battle was launched from areas controlled by HTS, about 10km to the west of Aleppo city.
Some rebel groups affiliated with the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) joined the operation, though the majority of those forces have so far refrained from participating, according to reports.
Syrian rebels storm towards Aleppo in shock offensive
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Fotage circulating on social media has shown HTS and aligned forces making significant advances, capturing large swathes of territory and progressing rapidly towards the outskirts of Aleppo city.
Turkish security sources said on Thursday that the groups had launched “a limited offensive” towards Aleppo to stop Syrian government attacks targeting the civilian population in Idlib.
Some have theorised that the assault was launched to coincide with Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Lebanese group has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in suppressing rebels and militant groups who have been fighting the government since 2011.
“It is strange to see the regime’s forces receive such blows despite Russian air cover,” said SOHR chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
“Were the regime’s forces dependent on Hezbollah, which is currently occupied in Lebanon?”
A senior Turkish security source told MEE that Turkey had attempted to prevent the offensive to avoid further escalating tensions in the region, especially given Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.
However, efforts to use channels established by a 2019 de-escalation agreement to halt Russian and Syrian government air strikes targeting residential areas of rebel-held Idlib province had not yielded results.
