Syrian army admits Islamist rebels enter Aleppo, upending yearslong civil war stalemate
Military says dozens of troops killed, in its first acknowledgment of failure to prevent jihadists’ surprise seizure of metropolis held by Assad since 2016
The Syrian military said on Saturday that rebels had entered large parts of Aleppo city during an offensive in which dozens of soldiers were killed, forcing the army to redeploy — the biggest challenge in years to Syria’s President Bashar Assad.
The Syrian army command’s statement was the military’s first public acknowledgment that rebels, led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), had entered Aleppo — Syria’s pre-war industrial hub and largest city. Aleppo had been under full state control since government forces, with the support of Russia and Iran, drove out rebels eight years ago.
Russia was said to be providing air cover for Syrian government forces over recent days’ fighting in Aleppo, which Iran’s foreign minister blamed on Israel and the United States in a call with his Syrian counterpart on Friday.
The Syrian army said it had redeployed “to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers and prepare for a counterattack.” The army added that its bombardments had prevented the rebels from establishing fixed positions, and that it would “expel them and restore the control of the state … over the entire city and its countryside.”
Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo citadel. They tore down posters of Assad, stepping on some and burning others.
The surprise takeover of Aleppo is a huge embarrassment for Assad, who managed to regain total control of the city in 2016, after expelling insurgents and thousands of civilians from its eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which his forces were backed by Russia, Iran and the latter’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.
The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.
Two rebel sources said that in their latest push, the insurgents had also captured the city of Maraat al Numan in Idlib province, bringing all of that province under their control, in what would be another significant blow to Assad.
According to three Syrian military sources, local authorities have closed the Aleppo airport and roads to the city, and the army had been told to follow “safe withdrawal” orders from the main areas of the city that the rebels had entered.
Two of the sources said Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted insurgents in an Aleppo suburb on Saturday, and that Russia had pledged additional military aid in the next 72 hours.
The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue service operating in opposition-held parts of Syria, also said in a post on X Friday that the Syrian government and Russian aircraft had carried out airstrikes on residential neighborhoods, a gas station and a school in rebel-held Idlib, killing four civilians and wounding 25 others, including women and children.
Syrian regime-Russia warplanes targeted residential areas in the city of #Idlib, including Salah al-Din School and the Al-Andani fuel station. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 4 civilians and the injury of 25 others, including 8 children and 6 women. The airstrikes also… pic.twitter.com/wpLEwAlHz9
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) November 29, 2024
Syrian opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey, which supports the rebels, had given a green light to the offensive in Idlib. Turkish officials were not immediately available to comment on Saturday.
Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander in the Jaish al-Izza rebel brigade, said the anti-government forces’ speedy advance had been helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower to support the government in the broader Aleppo province.
Iran’s client Hezbollah signed a ceasefire with Israel hours before the Syrian rebels infiltrated Aleppo. Israel has also carried out extensive strikes against Hezbollah and other pro-Iran fighters in Syria.
The surprise attack on Aleppo has jolted the frontlines of the Syrian civil war, which have all but frozen since 2020. The Britain-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory said 311 people have been killed in the renewed fighting: 183 from HTS and allied factions, 100 soldiers and pro-government forces, as well as 28 civilians.
HTS, a jihadist alliance led by al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, controls swaths of the Idlib region in Syria’s northwest, as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. Allied Turkish-backed rebel factions have also been taking part in the offensive.
The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas. Turkey had failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Syrian government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Moscow considers the rebel attack on Aleppo to be a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
“We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible,” he said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
