Syria’s Aleppo slips from govt control

Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country’s conflict began more than a decade ago, a war monitor said yesterday, after a surprise advance by rebels.

An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance has pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after two months of all-out war.

The Syrian army — supported by Russian air power — had recaptured in 2016 rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a city dominated by its landmark citadel.

Damascus also relied on Hezbollah fighters to regain swathes of Syria lost to rebels early in the war which began in 2011 when the government crushed protests. But Hezbollah has taken heavy losses in its fight with Israel.

The jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebel factions “control Aleppo city, except the neighbourhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

For the first time since the conflict started, “Aleppo city is out of control of Syrian regime forces,” Abdel Rahman said.

Meanwhile, the war monitor said Russian strikes killed eight civilians in Idlib, a bastion of rebels who have launched a major offensive against government forces.

Several northern districts inside Aleppo are predominantly inhabited by Syrian Kurds under authority of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic forces.

The SDF are the de facto army in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northeast Syria. They are a US-backed force that spearheaded fighting against the Islamic State group jihadists before IS’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.

Separately, the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebel factions seized Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns on Saturday after overrunning most of Aleppo, the Observatory said.

Damascus ally Moscow responded with its first air strikes on Aleppo since 2016.

Prior to this offensive, HTS, led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, already controlled swathes of the Idlib region, the last area outside President Bashar al-Assad’s government control, in Syria’s northwest.

HTS also held parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. Allied Turkish-backed rebel factions have also been taking part in the offensive.