The coalition of rebels led by radical Islamists who launched an offensive in northern Syria approached Hama on Tuesday, a key city in the center of the country, to which regime forces are trying to block access, supported by the Russian aviation.
Faced with this resumption of large-scale hostilities in Syria, after more than a decade of civil war, international calls for de-escalation are increasing.
The radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other rebel factions launched a dazzling offensive in the northwest of the country on November 27, seizing dozens of localities as well as a large part of the second city of the country, Aleppo.
“Violent clashes are taking place in the north of the province of Hama”, a strategic town on the road linking Aleppo, in the north, to the capital Damascus, while “Russian and Syrian air forces carry out dozens of strikes” on positions rebels, indicated the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
Anti-regime groups have taken control of several localities in the region, according to this NGO based in the United Kingdom which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
An AFP photographer saw dozens of abandoned Syrian army tanks and vehicles on the road leading to Hama on Tuesday morning.
The army had previously announced that it had sent reinforcements to the region to slow the progress of the rebels.
– Flight of the inhabitants –
“We are progressing towards Hama after having cleaned” the localities leading there, a rebel fighter, introducing himself as Aboul Houda Sourani, told AFP.
On Monday, these forces bombarded the city with rocket launchers, where six civilians were killed, according to the OSDH.
The fighting and bombings in the northwest of the country, the first of this magnitude since 2020, have left 514 dead since November 27, including 92 civilians, according to the OSDH.
As of Saturday, more than 48,500 people had been displaced in the regions of Idlib and northern Aleppo, more than half of them children, the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Monday.
Among them are thousands of Syrian Kurds. Their cars, vans or motorcycles overloaded with mattresses and blankets formed a long line on the Aleppo-Raqqa highway (north), according to AFP images, to reach further east the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces ( FDS), dominated by the Kurds.
For the first time since the start of the civil war in 2011, the regime has completely lost control of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, of which the rebels, including groups supported by Ankara, have taken possession of all but its northern neighborhoods inhabited by Kurds.
– ‘The terror’ of airstrikes –
In Idleb, which Syrian and Russian planes bombed in response to the offensive, AFP images showed rescuers searching the rubble of buildings razed by strikes, which also targeted the Haranabouch displaced persons camp.
“I cannot describe (…) the terror we felt,” Hussein Ahmar Khader, a teacher, testified on Monday.
In Aleppo, according to AFP images, armed rebels patrolled the streets of the city, near the historic citadel, or taking up positions in the international airport of the city of around two million inhabitants.
Residents were queuing to receive country food distributed by an association.
“We are in uncertainty, we don’t know what will happen,” said an Aleppo resident contacted by telephone by AFP on Monday, without giving his name. “No one was bothered,” according to him, “but some militiamen told the girls to veil themselves.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”, according to his spokesperson.
The United States, at the head of an international anti-jihadist coalition in Syria, urged “all countries” to work for “de-escalation”, as did the European Union which “condemned” Russian strikes “on densely populated areas.
– “Redraw the regional map” –
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the “terrorist escalation” aimed to “redraw the regional map in accordance with the interests and objectives of America and the West”, in a telephone interview with his Iranian counterpart, Massoud Pezeshkian .
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr. Pezeshkian affirmed their “unconditional” support for Mr. Assad and called for coordination with Turkey, which supports rebel groups, the Kremlin said.
Syria has been divided by the civil war into several zones of influence, where the belligerents are supported by different foreign powers.
It was thanks to the military support of Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah that the Assad regime succeeded in retaking a large part of the territory in 2015 and the entirety of Aleppo in 2016.
The conflict, triggered by the brutal repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, left around half a million dead.
Before the rebel offensive, northwest Syria enjoyed an uneasy calm under a ceasefire established in 2020, under the sponsorship of Ankara and Moscow.
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