On Friday, insurgents breached Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.
after detonating two car bombs and clashing with government forces on the city’s western outskirts, according to a war monitor and local fighters. Witnesses in Aleppo reported that residents were fleeing from neighborhoods due to missile fire and gunshots.
The insurgents’ assault on Aleppo followed a surprise offensive they launched on Wednesday, when thousands of fighters swept through villages and towns in Syria’s northwest. This attack has added further uncertainty to a region already grappling with the ongoing wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and the unresolved Syrian civil war, which began in 2011.
This marks the first time since 2016 that opposition forces have attacked Aleppo, following a military campaign that year in which Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, recaptured the city. However, this time there was no significant resistance from the government or its allies, with reports of forces retreating and insurgents calling for surrender via social media. This offensive occurred while Iran-linked groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have been distracted by their own conflict in Lebanon.
A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month-long war with Israel went into effect on the same day the Syrian opposition began their assault. Meanwhile, Israel has continued targeting Hezbollah and Iranian positions in Syria over the past 70 days.
The attack on Aleppo follows weeks of low-level violence, including government strikes on opposition-held areas. Turkey, which supports Syrian opposition groups, failed to prevent the attacks, which are seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement aimed at de-escalating the conflict.
Turkish officials stated that the opposition launched a planned “limited” offensive toward Aleppo but expanded it after Syrian government forces began retreating. The goal of the offensive, according to Turkey, was to re-establish the boundaries of the de-escalation zone.
The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a major turning point in the civil war, when Russian and Iranian-backed government forces recaptured the entire city after a prolonged siege. Turkey, which has backed opposition forces, has also maintained a military presence in northern Syria, while the U.S. has supported Kurdish forces in the east against the Islamic State.
The Syrian government has not commented on the insurgent breach of Aleppo’s city limits. However, Russia’s Kremlin condemned the attack, calling it a violation of Syria’s sovereignty and urging the Syrian government to restore order quickly.
Syria’s armed forces reported ongoing clashes with insurgents in the areas surrounding Aleppo and Idlib, claiming to have destroyed drones and heavy weaponry. They vowed to repel the offensive, accusing insurgents of spreading false reports about their progress.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that insurgents detonated two car bombs at the western edge of Aleppo and seized control of Saraqeb, a key town south of the city. Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that opposition forces had entered Aleppo’s city center, breaking through defense lines along several axes and capturing around 70 locations in Aleppo and Idlib.
Syrian state media also reported that insurgent projectiles hit student housing at Aleppo University, killing four people, including two students. Public transportation was rerouted to avoid the fighting.
This recent offensive represents one of the largest in recent years by opposition factions, primarily led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and marks the most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces recaptured territories from opposition control.
Syria’s armed forces stated that the insurgents are violating the 2019 de-escalation agreement, which had been in place for years in the last major opposition stronghold. The Syrian Observatory reported that dozens of fighters from both sides have been killed since the clashes began on Wednesday.
Hezbollah was the main force supporting government control of Aleppo, according to the Observatory. In a phone call with his Syrian counterpart, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. and Israel of orchestrating the insurgent attacks, linking them to the defeat of the regime in Lebanon and Palestine.
