Syrian rebels reportedly take control of half of Aleppo

Rebels forces in Syria advanced into the government-controlled city of Aleppo on Friday, according to a war monitor and fighters, the first time in years that insurgents have entered the country’s largest city.

The U.K.-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said one rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, had gained control of “more than half of Aleppo … without any resistance from” the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. At least 277 people have been killed since the offensive started on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

Syrian authorities closed the Aleppo airport and all roads leading into the city on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing military sources.

The surprise attack that sent residents fleeing, according to reports, and injected fresh uncertainty to a region already been rocked by wars in Gaza and Lebanon involving Israel, and other conflicts, including the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.

Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since they were ousted from eastern neighborhoods in 2016 following a grueling military campaign in which Syrian government forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

This time, there was no sign of a significant pushback from government forces or their allies. Instead, reports emerged of government forces retreating in the face of advances, and insurgents posted messages on social media calling on troops to surrender.

Robert Ford, who was the last U.S. ambassador to Syria, said the attack showed that Syrian government forces are “extremely weak,” the Associated Press reported. In some cases, he said, they appear to have “almost been routed,” he said.

This week’s advances were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, and represent the most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by the opposition, the AP said.

Moscow, a key ally of Assad, launched aerial strikes against the Syrian opposition forces in Aleppo and Idlib, Russian state media TASS reported. Russia claimed to have killed at least 200 militants.

Russia has promised extra military aid to help thwart the rebels, Reuters reported. New hardware should start arriving in the next 72 hours, the news agency cited military sources as saying.

The rebel offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home.

A cease-fire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive.