Syrian rebels take most of Aleppo and advance south | International | EUROtoday

The defenses of the Syrian regime, which till just a few months in the past appeared stable due to the help of Iran and Russia, are crumbling like a home of playing cards as soon as Moscow has dedicated a part of its forces to the invasion of Ukraine and pro-Iranian forces, notably Hezbollah, have been weakened by Israeli assaults. This Saturday, the common military withdrew from Aleppo, the nation’s second metropolis, within the face of the unstoppable advance of the joint operation between the Salafist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and insurgent factions of the so-called Syrian National Army (ENS), which since Their entry on Friday into the western neighborhoods has managed to shortly lengthen their management to a lot of the metropolis, in addition to advance south in the direction of Hama, which has additionally been swiftly evacuated by the military.

While forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad and a part of the inhabitants fled Aleppo, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by Kurdish militias, have despatched reinforcements to the northern and japanese neighborhoods the place they keep their presence and have There have been occasional battles towards Islamist rebels.

The regime and Russian aviation have bombed Aleppo—for the primary time since they regained management in 2016—to attempt to cease the rebel advance, an offensive that has killed a excessive variety of civilians, in response to each insurgent and Kurdish sources. “In retaliation for the advances of the opposition forces, the Syrian and Russian fighters, as usual, have attacked civilians,” denounced a neighborhood supply from Aleppo consulted by this newspaper.

Particularly bloody was an assault on a number of civilian automobiles on the Al Basel roundabout in japanese Aleppo, killing no less than 16 folks and wounding one other 20, in response to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). In movies of the assault shared with this newspaper, quite a few charred and dismembered corpses will be seen. According to the OSDH, navy casualties for the reason that starting of the offensive on the twenty seventh quantity to round 300 and there are a number of dozen civilian deaths, the bulk as a result of Russian and Syrian aerial bombardments in areas below insurgent management.

Assad’s survival—and the way forward for the Syrian conflict—will largely rely on what is set in different capitals. During Saturday, the international ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey spoke by phone in varied methods and it was introduced that the pinnacle of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araqchi, would go to Damascus on Sunday and Ankara on Monday to debate the Syrian disaster. Various media and sources have reported that Assad has been in Moscow for 2 days, though this newspaper has not been in a position to independently confirm this.

The Syrian military command introduced that its withdrawal from Aleppo is “temporary” and supposed to regroup whereas awaiting the arrival of reinforcements. “The large number of terrorists and the multiplication of combat fronts have led our Armed Forces to undertake a regrouping operation aimed at reinforcing the defensive lines and absorbing the attack, preserving the lives of civilians and soldiers and preparing for a counteroffensive. “, he said in a statement in which he promises to “expel” the rebels and “restore state control.”

However, the images that transcend the city indicate that the withdrawal is being anything but orderly and opposition media to Assad claim that the rebels have ambushed and killed the general in charge of Aleppo’s military security. The authorities have also closed all flights from the Aleppo airport – east of the city – whose control the SDF took control of and, at the end of Saturday afternoon, left it in the hands of the rebels.

“We promise to safeguard lives and property and preserve the rights of all citizens in the liberated areas,” stated an announcement signed by the Salvation Government – ​​which controls Idlib province and is dominated by HTS – and the command of the operation. Deter Aggressionbecause the offensive launched final Wednesday was known as and which was initially supposed to maneuver the entrance away from essentially the most populated areas below insurgent management after the rise in Russian and Syrian regime assaults.

The biggest offensive in the war in five years

Despite the initial objective, the operation has ended up becoming the largest offensive recorded in the Syrian civil war for at least five years. In fact, the rebels have taken control of important towns such as Saraqib, at the intersection between the M5 highways – which connects Aleppo and the capital, Damascus – and M4, which connects Aleppo with the coastal city of Latakia. Likewise, HTS fighters have launched another attack towards the south and have taken over Marat al Numan and other towns until they have practically regained full control of the province of Idlib.

From there, they have advanced more than 25 kilometers to the south, occupying towns with little resistance in the direction of Hama, another of the large Syrian cities. The images that emerge from Hama indicate that the army also withdrew from there, a few hours before the rebels entered the city; Although with nightfall the government troops counterattacked, pushing the rebels out of the urban area.

In parallel, ENS forces – a conglomerate of factions supported by Turkey – have begun an operation from Al Bab, in the north of Aleppo province. Turkey has also bombed positions of the Kurdish militias around Tel Rifat, an enclave in the hands of the FDS and with the presence of Russian soldiers north of Aleppo.

“In our area, the regime’s soldiers are fleeing because no support or reinforcements are arriving,” the commander of a brigade of the Faylaq al Majd group, attached to the ENS, stationed on the Al Bab front, explains to EL PAÍS by phone. “They are handing over their positions to ‘Kandil’s dogs,’” he says, using a derogatory name for Kurdish militias: “And Kandil’s dogs are putting up resistance in our part of the front, but in others we are making a lot of progress. Also in Aleppo, where part of my troops are. “They have very high morale.” Not in vain, since Al Bab, the rebel forces have penetrated twenty kilometers into the territory of the regime and the Kurdish militias in just half a day of fighting.

Despite rebel calls that the population be respected, thousands of civilians have fled Aleppo, Reuters reported citing several sources. Fourteen years of civil war and massacres have exacerbated hatred among the population that supports each side and is divided—broadly—between Kurds (many of them supporters of the SDF), Sunni Arabs (on whom the groups rely rebels) and Shiite Alawite Arabs (backbone of the Assad regime), as well as Christians and other minorities.

“The regime’s objective in handing over its positions to the Kurds is to cause clashes with the Islamist rebels. But I think they can be prevented, because now HTS is much more pragmatic and an agreement could be reached to share the city between rebels and Kurdish militias,” Khaled Joya, former president of the Syrian National Coalition, the primary opposition coalition, tells this newspaper. . In truth, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Kamal Akif, acknowledged in statements to the ANHA company that the Kurdish militias favor that there be no confrontation with any of the events.

The regime’s technique, Joya continues, is much like the one it practiced earlier than Russia’s intervention in 2015: “Retreat to the capital, Damascus, and to the coastal areas (Tartus and Latakia) with an Alawite majority.”