Insurgents Breach Syria’s Second-Largest City

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Syrian opposition groups have breached Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, after blowing up two car bombs and fighting with government forces on Friday in clashes that have killed some 200 people, a Syria war monitor and witnesses say.

Insurgents have been approaching Aleppo city for days and seized several towns and villages along the way.

The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, who had backed Syrian government forces since 2015, were preoccupied with their battles at home.

The latest fighting marked the first time in years that rebel forces in north-western Syria captured territory from President Bashar al-Assad’s military.

It came shortly after Israel and Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, agreed on a ceasefire deal that involved withdrawing from territory in southern Lebanon.

Additionally, Russia’s military, which also supports Syria’s government, faces challenges as well because of Moscow’s focus on the war in Ukraine.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the insurgents blew up two car bombs at the city’s western edge on Friday.

INSURGENT COMMANDER

An insurgent commander urged residents through social media to cooperate with the advancing forces.

The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions said they had seized control of several towns and villages in Aleppo and Idlib provinces since Wednesday.

The Syrian military said its forces were confronting a “large-scale” attack by “terrorists” and inflicting heavy losses on them.

More than 180 combatants on both sides had been killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Additionally, at least 19 civilians had also been killed in Syrian and Russian air strikes on opposition-held areas, it added.

More than half a million people have been killed in the civil war that erupted after the government cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011, according to official estimates.

Among those fleeing are also thousands of Christians, Worthy News established.

REMAINING STRONGHOLD

Idlib, where the current fighting occurs, is the last remaining opposition stronghold and is home to more than 4 million people. Many of these residents have been displaced during the armed conflict and are living in dire conditions, according to aid workers.

HTS mainly controls the enclave, but Turkish-backed rebel factions operating under the banner of the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Turkish forces are also based there.

In 2020, Turkey and Russia – a staunch ally of Assad – brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib.

That led to an extended lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, air strikes, and shelling continued. Turkish media said the insurgents now control about 70 locations in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

Syria’s state media reported earlier Friday that “projectiles” from insurgents landed in the student accommodations at Aleppo’s university in the city center, killing four people, including two students.

The report said that public transportation to the city had also been diverted from the main highway linking Aleppo to Damascus to avoid clashes. Fighters reportedly also advanced on the town of Saragab, in northwestern Idlib province, a strategic area that would secure supply lines to Aleppo.

This week’s advances were one of the largest by opposition factions and amounted to the most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters.

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