Syrian and Russian jets are stepping up strikes on opposition forces in northern Syria in retaliation for the sudden offensive that has cost the regime control of the country’s second largest city, Aleppo.
The offensive has also led to the capture by the rebel alliance of an important military base east of Aleppo and large areas of both Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It has met little resistance on the ground from regime forces and also comes at a time when Syria’s key backers – Iran and Russia – are focusing on their own conflicts.
The rebels’ sweeping success has posed the biggest challenge in eight years to President Bashar al-Assad, when Russian air power helped reverse rebel gains in the civil war.
The newly formed rebel coalition, which calls itself the Military Operations Command, has captured key sites across Aleppo, including the airport, where video verified by CNN showed camo-clad fighters inside the main terminal.
Fighters enter the Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo on their motorbikes with smoke billowing in the background during fighting on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and allied factions continue their offensive in the Aleppo province against government forces. The jihadists along with Turkey-backed factions launched this week a shock offensive against Syrian regime troops and sparked the deadliest battle the country has seen in years, with the violence killing so far 242 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The war monitor said most of the victims were combatants on both sides but also including civilians.
The rebels consolidated their gains Sunday capturing key military sites in the east of Aleppo city. But they have left some neighborhoods in the hands of Kurdish forces.
The opposition forces’ control of Aleppo means that the regime counteroffensive promised by the Syrian defense ministry would be very difficult to carry out.
Government aircraft – along with Russian planes based in Syria – have carried out bombing raids against opposition positions in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
The official Russian news agency TASS cited the Syrian army command in a report Sunday as saying that their air forces “stepped up strikes on terrorist positions and their supply lines, with dozens killed and wounded.”
An airstrike close to Aleppo university on Sunday killed at least four people, according to social media video geolocated by CNN.
It is unclear whether the strike was carried out by Russian or Syrian regime planes. The strike follows one on Saturday which killed several people in a square in western Aleppo.
The White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer service, said at least four people were killed on Sunday in airstrikes on Idlib city, a province that now appears to be entirely in rebel hands.
In his first comments since the lightning takeover, Assad has said that Syria will continue “to defend its stability and territorial integrity in the face of all terrorists and their supporters,” during calls with regional leaders on Saturday.
Assad said Syria was capable “with the help of its allies and friends, of defeating and eliminating them, no matter how intense their terrorist attacks are.”
