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Beirut, Lebanon:
Jihadist rebels now control the majority of Aleppo city, a Syrian war monitor said on Saturday, the first time since 2016 that Russian airstrikes were reported on parts of another Syrian city.
Rebels have called for a lightning strike against Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government forces since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Damascus-allied Hezbollah group took effect in neighboring Lebanon. . of all-out war.
“Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allied factions … took control of most government centers and prisons in the city,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
HTS, a jihadist coalition led by al-Qaeda’s former Syrian branch, controls the Idlib region in northwest Syria, as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
Overnight, Russian “warplanes raided areas of Aleppo city for the first time since 2016,” added the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
It raised the death toll from days of clashes to 311 — 183 HTS and allied Turkish-backed factions, 100 soldiers and pro-government forces, as well as 28 civilians.
State media reported that HTS shelled a student residence in Aleppo, a city of nearly 2 million people that was Syria’s pre-war hub of preparation.
Iran-backed militias have a heavy presence in the Aleppo region, providing crucial ground support in 2016 when the Syrian army — backed by Russian air power — retook rebel-held areas of the city.
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An AFP correspondent saw rebels inside Aleppo celebrating and cheering late Friday night. Another reporter saw anti-government fighters in front of the city’s historic fort.
“The governor of Aleppo and the commander of the police and security branch withdrew from the city center,” the Observatory said.
After the jihadists and their allies reported on Friday that more than 50 towns and villages had been seized in the north, the Observatory added that the overnight airstrikes had led to the “arrival of large (rebel) military reinforcements” in the area. Happened at the same time.
Army reinforcements have arrived in Aleppo, a Syrian security official told AFP on Friday, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, while an army statement said troops had entered the city. have repulsed the attack and recaptured some positions.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP early Saturday that rebel fighters quickly seized a large part of Aleppo without much resistance, adding that “the withdrawal of government forces After that there was no fight, not a single shot was fired.”
The Observatory said the jihadists and their allies made other advances in the north, including capturing the strategic town of Saraqeb, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest on the road to Aleppo.
The Russian military said on Friday it was bombing “extremist” forces, after Turkey called for an end to bombing the Idlib region.
Since 2020, the Idlib region has been subject to a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia that has largely held despite repeated violations.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
