The Islamist alliance Levant Liberation Organization and armed factions backed by Turkey this Saturday consolidated control of almost the entire city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, and the neighboring province of Idlib. after four days of offensive against the Army of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
The offensive, launched last Wednesday after days of intense bombing against the bastion of the pro-Turkish factions, Idlib, has so far caused a death toll of about 350 muertos on both sides, including forty civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
This is the first time that rebels have entered the city of Aleppo since it was taken by Al Assad’s Army in 2016, while the escalation of violence and the rapid advance of these factions considered “terrorists“by Damascus and its ally Russia represent the greatest challenge for the Syrian Government since 2020.
Aleppo falls with little resistance
The rebels managed to enter the city of Aleppo yesterday for the first time, where this Saturday they extended their control in the vast majority of the neighborhoods and even managed to take the international airport of what is the second largest city in Syria.
So far, only some areas of the northeast of the city under the rule of Kurdish forces – allies of Damascus against the pro-Turkish Islamists – are offering resistance after the withdrawal of the Syrian Army and the pro-Iranian militias that support Al Assad, according to the Observatory. And Al Assad’s troops recognized today that the insurgents They have taken control of “a large part” of Aleppo and have suffered “dozens” of casualties among their ranks.
However, regular troops said they have continued to launch “concentrated attacks” against insurgents after its “temporary” withdrawal from Aleppo, “waiting for the arrival of military forces to be completed to distribute them in the combat axes, in preparation for a counterattack.”
In the midst of the chaos that has invaded the city, Russian warplanes carried out several bombing raids against Aleppo that killed at least 16 civilians and several pro-Turkish fighters, according to the NGO, which noted that there are a large displacement of people from the province of the same name due to the escalation of violence.
Control of Idlib and advances in Hama
In parallel, the rebels have consolidated their almost complete control of the neighboring province of Idlib after taking the strategic city of Maarat al Numan, which since 2020 was in the hands of the Syrian Army, and later the city of Khan Shayjun, which borders the demarcation. administrative area of Hama, in north-central Syria.
The offensive occurs at a time when Türkiye seeks to restore relations with Damascus, although the Syrian Government affirms that Ankara must withdraw its troops from northern Syria and stop supporting opposition groups to move towards the normalization of ties, broken since the start of the Syrian civil war 13 years ago.
This operation It began on the same day the truce came into force in Lebanon and after the harsh blows inflicted by Israel on the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah both in that country and in Syria, where the armed movement maintains a large presence and is one of the main allies of the Government of Damascus.
