Syrian rebels seize towns close to Aleppo

Syrian rebels seize towns close to Aleppo

The Syrian opposition launched a surprise offensive against pro-Assad forces and crossed into regime held Aleppo making it to within 5km of the city. Rebels posted footage of captured Russian, Iranian and Syrian army equipment and… pic.twitter.com/jjlEpGhLuB

— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) November 28, 2024

Syrian opposition forces have captured dozens of towns and villages in north-western Syria after launching a revived offensive in Aleppo province yesterday, in the first large scale hostilities to take place in four years against Assad regime forces.

In an operation named ‘Deterring Aggression’, Syrian rebel forces last night took control of dozens of key towns and villages only kilometres away from the major city of Aleppo, with the goal of the fighting reportedly to expand areas of Syria where displaced people could return to “in dignity and security”.

The rebel fighters are largely from the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group and their Fath Al-Mubeen operations room which covers a number of other rebel groups. According to reports, they have been preparing for the operation throughout the past year, aiming to surprise Bashar Al-Assad’s regime forces and their allied militias in the region.

It was also aggravated, though, by recent provocations carried out by the regime forces, with Mustafa Bakkour, the spokesman for the Jaysh Al-Izzah rebel group, being cited by The New Arab outlet as saying that the operation is in response to the Syrian regime forces’ attacks on civilian areas and sites in north-western Syria over the past few weeks.

Read: Will Syria’s opposition defeat Assad while Russia is tied down in Ukraine?

Following the shock attacks and advances by the rebel groups yesterday, regime forces and their affiliated pro-Iran militias responded with artillery and rocket bombardment on rebel-held territory in Idlib and the west of Aleppo province.

Since the operation was launched, Turkiye’s security forces have also expressed their own input on the situation, with a senior Turkish security source telling the outlet, Middle East Eye, that the Syrian rebel groups had launched “a limited offensive” towards Aleppo to stop the regime attacks by “targeting the areas from which the attacks originated”.

The source claimed that “what was initially planned as a limited operation expanded as regime forces began fleeing their positions”, and that Turkiye had attempted to prevent the offensive in order to avoid further escalating tensions in the region amid Israel’s existing aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.

Another reported key aim of the Syrian rebel operation, according to that source, is to restore the 2019 boundaries of the ‘de-escalation zone’ in Idlib, which had initially been agreed upon by Turkiye, Russia and Iran following previous hostilities.

Significant parts of that zone surrounding Aleppo had been captured by the Assad regime in 2020 in direct violation of the agreement, forcing a newly-agreed ceasefire deal to take effect back then.

Watch: Israeli troops desecrate Lebanese church