In Syria, jihadist groups have taken control of “most” of Aleppo, according to an NGO

These fighters entered the city since Friday after two days of an offensive which ended years of relative calm in north-west Syria.

Jihadists and their allies are gaining ground in Aleppo. They took control of the “major part” of the city, the second in Syria, “government buildings and prisons”, after two days of a lightning offensive against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported on Saturday, November 30. They reached the city's historic citadel after Syrian regime forces withdrew “sans combat” during this last phase, said the director of the NGO based in the United Kingdom, Rami Abdel Rahmane, and who has a vast network of sources in Syria.

Jihadist fighters entered Aleppo on Friday after two days of an offensive which ended years of relative calm in north-west Syria. These fighting left at least 277 dead, according to a report given earlier by the OSDH, and are the most violent since 2020 in the region, where the province of Aleppo, largely held by the Syrian president, borders the last large rebel and jihadist stronghold of Idlib. The rebels also took control of the strategic town of Saraqeb, south of Aleppo, at the intersection of two highways linking Damascus to Aleppo and Latakia, according to the NGO.

According to the OSDH, the jihadist group HTS and allied groups, some close to Turkey, reached the gates of the city on Friday after “two suicide attacks with car bombs”. They then gradually took control of a growing number of neighborhoods, according to this source, who adds that since Wednesday, the offensive has allowed the jihadists to conquer around 70 localities, including around twenty on Friday.

For its part, the Syrian army, which deployed reinforcements in Aleppo, according to a security official, assured Friday that it had pushed back “the great offensive of terrorist groups” and regained several positions. The Russian army, for its part, announced that its air force was bombing groups “extremists” in Syria, in support of the regime forces, according to Russian agencies. The Syrian air force also launched intensive raids on the Idlib region, the OSDH reported.