Battle for Aleppo: Syrian rebels challenge Assad

According to activists, Syrian rebels now control large parts of the city of Aleppo after the heaviest fighting in years. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the German Press Agency. Accordingly, the insurgents entered Aleppo for the first time since 2016 – just three days after the start of their surprising offensive against the troops of ruler Bashar al-Assad. The government is reportedly massing its forces in the east of the city for a counterstrike. According to activists, in order to prevent the advance of the rebels, Russian warplanes attacked targets in the Syrian city of over a million people during the night for the first time since 2016. Syria’s ally Russia attacked a neighborhood in the west of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. The UK-based Observatory draws its information from a network of different sources in Syria. Your information can hardly be verified by an independent party.

If Aleppo falls permanently to the insurgents, it would be a bitter blow for President Assad, who has been able to consolidate his power again in recent years with the help of Russian and Iranian support. The rebel offensive represents a remarkable development in the civil war that has been ongoing since 2011, as the fronts had changed little recently. Russia previously said it would support Syrian government troops.

An alliance of insurgents led by the Islamist organization Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made surprisingly large territorial gains in an offensive in the northwest of the country this week. Government troops and their allies came under pressure in the areas surrounding the cities of Idlib and Aleppo. The alliance of Islamist rebels calls its new offensive “deterring aggression.”

On Friday the fighting reached the outskirts of Aleppo. According to eyewitnesses, the noise of battle and explosions could be heard from far away. Some of the government troops therefore left their positions. According to a dpa reporter on site, thousands of people are fleeing to rural areas or other cities. The rebel alliance said it imposed a curfew in the city until 8 a.m. on Saturday.

The Syrian Defense Ministry said the armed forces were facing massive attacks in the surrounding areas of Aleppo and Idlib. The Syrian army, supported by Russian fighter jets, attacked dozens of targets in Idlib and the Aleppo area. A Russian army spokesman said at least 200 rebels had been killed in Russian attacks, according to the state news agency Tass.

Aleppo was heavily contested in the early years of the Syrian civil war and was extensively destroyed. Shocking images of the devastated city went around the world. In 2016, the Syrian military and its allies forcibly drove the rebels out of the eastern part of the city. The battle for Aleppo is still considered one of the worst in more than 13 years of civil war. Idlib has been in the hands of the insurgents for years.

Since the rebel offensive began on Wednesday, nearly 300 people have been killed, including at least two dozen civilians, according to the Observatory for Human Rights. The organization, based in Great Britain, obtains its information from a network of local informants and is considered a reliable source of impressions from the country, which has been torn apart by years of violence.

Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015 and, with its superior air force, helped President Assad re-establish his faltering position of power. His government now controls two-thirds of the country again. Because of the Ukraine war, Moscow reduced its troop presence in Syria from 2022. There is no political solution to the conflict in sight. As a result of the civil war, millions of Syrians have fled abroad – many also to Germany.

Watch the video above: Osama Kezzo once fled the civil war in Syria; he experienced the dangers and mortal fear of fleeing himself. He is now running for the European elections and wants to give asylum seekers a voice.