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Syria: jihadists and rebels have taken most of Aleppo according to an NGO
Jihadists and allied rebel factions have captured most of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, after a lightning offensive against the forces of Bashar al-Assad’s regime that left more than 300 dead, an NGO said on Saturday. This violence is the first of this magnitude for several years in Syria, where hostilities had generally ceased between the different actors in the devastating war launched in 2011. With the crucial military support of the Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, the Assad regime regained control of a large part of the country in 2015 and the entire city of Aleppo in 2016 after destructive bombings. But vast regions still escape control. its control: the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, and their allies, Syrian rebels, control entire parts of the province of Idlib (northwest) and territories in the neighboring province of Aleppo, as well as sectors of Hama and Latakia. Without forgetting large areas of the northeast of the country in the hands of Syrian Kurdish forces. Entering Aleppo on Friday, “HTS and allied rebel factions took control of most of the city, government buildings and prisons” , indicated the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). This NGO, based in Great Britain but which has a vast network of sources in the country at war, also reported nighttime Russian air raids on Aleppo, the first since 2016. An AFP correspondent saw Rebels celebrate and cheer in the city Friday evening. Another saw anti-regime fighters in front of the historic citadel of Aleppo. – “We are afraid” – “For the first time in almost five years, we hear rockets and shells and sometimes planes,” described Sarmad, a resident of Aleppo. “We are afraid that the scenario of war will repeat itself and that we will be forced to flee our homes.” According to the head of the OSDH Rami Abdel Rahmane, “the governor of Aleppo and the commanders of the police and security services security forces withdrew from downtown Aleppo. And the Russian strikes coincided with “the arrival of significant military reinforcements” from the jihadists in the area, he told AFP. Since the start of the offensive by the jihadists and rebels on Wednesday, the fighting and the bombings left at least 311 dead, 183 from the HTS and rebel factions, 100 Syrian soldiers and members of the pro-government forces as well as 28 civilians, according to a new report from OSDH. The head of the “government” proclaimed by the HTS in Idlib, Mohammad al-Bashir, affirmed Thursday that the offensive had been launched after “the regime (Assad) massed forces on the front lines and began bombing civilian areas, which caused the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians. The offensive allowed the jihadists and rebels to conquer around 70 localities including the key city of Saraqeb, in the south of Aleppo, at the intersection of two highways linking Damascus to Aleppo and Latakia, according to the OSDH. – Suicide attacks – According to the Observatory, the HTS and the rebels, some of whom are close to Turkey, reached Friday at the city gates after “two suicide attacks with car bombs” and then gradually took control of neighborhoods. The Russian army announced that its air force had bombed “extremist” groups in Syria on Friday, in support of the regime’s forces, according to Russian agencies. The Syrian air force also launched intensive raids on the Idlib region, indicated the OSDH.Northwest Syria has benefited in recent years from a precarious calm made possible by a ceasefire established after a regime offensive in March 2020, and sponsored by Moscow and Ankara.The jihadist offensive was launched the day a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hezbollah and Israel, in open war for more than two months. Israel has also bombed Hezbollah sites in Syria. Iran, also an ally of Hezbollah, and Russia militarily aided the Assad regime during the civil war, which began in 2011 after the government’s brutal repression of pro-democracy protests in Syria. . The complex war, in which many actors are involved, has left half a million dead and displaced millions. bur/tp/ila
