In Syria, the government says it is facing a “vast jihadist attack” near Aleppo

Fighting in northern Syria between regime forces and jihadists, who launched an offensive against government-controlled territories on Wednesday, left more than 200 dead, according to a new report provided Thursday, November 28 by the Observatory Syrian Human Rights Organization (OSDH).

These are 102 jihadist fighters from Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (or HTC, “Levant Liberation Organization”), 19 members of allied groups, and “61 members of the regime forces”according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) based in London and which has a vast network of sources in Syria. Civilians are among the dead: 19 were killed Thursday in strikes by the Russian air force, an ally of the Syrian regime, adds the Observatory, specifying that a civilian had been killed by bombings by the Syrian army the day before.

These are the most violent clashes since 2020 in northwest Syria, where the province of Aleppo, largely in the hands of Bashar Al-Assad's regime, borders the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold of Idlib. .

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that “more than 14,000 people – almost half of whom are children – have been displaced” due to the violence. The Syrian defense ministry said it faces a “vast attack” of the “terrorist organizations” in the Aleppo region.

Road linking Damascus to Aleppo cut

Kioumars Pourhashemi, a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was also killed, according to an Iranian news agency. Iran is an unwavering ally of Syria, a country in which Tehran is involved militarily, sending advisors, at the request of local authorities, to support President Bashar Al-Assad during the Syrian civil war.

The spokesperson for Iranian diplomacy, Esmaeil Baghaei, estimated Thursday that the current offensive was “part of a diabolical plan of the terrorist regime [Israël] and the United States »and called for “firm and coordinated action to prevent the spread of terrorism in the region”.

Jihadists and their allies cut the vital road linking the capital Damascus to Aleppo, the country's second city, on Thursday, according to the OSDH. They also took control of the road intersection between Aleppo and the coastal city of Latakia, according to the same source. The NGO reported villages conquered by jihadists in western Aleppo province and in a government-held sector of Idlib province.

In addition to rocket fire and “intense artillery fire”, “Russian aviation”acting in support of the regime, “intensified its airstrikes”targeting in particular the surroundings of Sarmine, in the Idlib region, according to the OSDH.

The most violent clashes since 2020

HTS, dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, controls parts of the province of Idlib, but also neighboring territories in the regions of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia. In a press conference, the head of the self-proclaimed “government” in Idlib, Mohammad Al-Bashir, claimed that the offensive had been launched “because the criminal regime had massed forces on the front lines and started bombing civilian areas, which caused the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians”.

Analyst Nick Heras of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy believes the rebels “tried to anticipate the possibility of a Syrian military campaign in the Aleppo region, which was being prepared by airstrikes by the Russian and Syrian governments”.

Northern Syria has benefited from a precarious calm in recent years, made possible by a ceasefire established after a regime offensive in March 2020. The truce was sponsored by Moscow and Ankara, with the Turkish government supporting certain groups. Syrian rebels on its border. At the same time, Turkey “sends a message to Damascus and Moscow to renounce their military efforts in northwest Syria”added the analyst.

The Syrian regime has regained control of a large part of the country with the support of its Russian and Iranian allies since the outbreak in 2011 of the conflict which left more than half a million dead and displaced millions of people. .