CNN
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Syrian and Russian jets are stepping up strikes on opposition forces in northern Syria in retaliation for the sudden offensive that has value the regime management of the nation’s second largest metropolis, Aleppo.
The offensive has additionally led to the seize by the insurgent alliance of an vital army base east of Aleppo and enormous areas of each Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It has met little resistance on the bottom from regime forces and likewise comes at a time when Syria’s key backers – Iran and Russia – are specializing in their very own conflicts.
The rebels’ sweeping success has posed the most important problem in eight years to President Bashar al-Assad, when Russian air energy helped reverse insurgent positive factors within the civil battle.
The newly fashioned insurgent coalition, which calls itself the Military Operations Command, has captured key websites throughout Aleppo, together with the airport, the place video verified by CNN confirmed camo-clad fighters inside the principle terminal.
The rebels consolidated their positive factors Sunday capturing key army websites within the east of Aleppo metropolis. But they’ve left some neighborhoods within the fingers of Kurdish forces.
The opposition forces’ management of Aleppo signifies that the regime counteroffensive promised by the Syrian protection ministry can be very troublesome to hold out.
Government plane – together with Russian planes primarily based in Syria – have carried out bombing raids towards opposition positions in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama.
The official Russian information company TASS cited the Syrian military command in a report Sunday as saying that their air forces “stepped up strikes on terrorist positions and their provide strains, with dozens killed and wounded.”
An airstrike near Aleppo college on Sunday killed no less than 4 individuals, in keeping with social media video geolocated by CNN.
It is unclear whether or not the strike was carried out by Russian or Syrian regime planes. The strike follows one on Saturday which killed a number of individuals in a sq. in western Aleppo.
Meanwhile, a Russian strike broken a Franciscan convent in Aleppo, in keeping with the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, although Vatican News mentioned no accidents had been reported.
The White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer service, mentioned no less than 4 individuals have been killed on Sunday in airstrikes on Idlib metropolis, a province that now seems to be totally in insurgent fingers.
In his first feedback because the lightning takeover, Assad has mentioned that Syria will proceed “to defend its stability and territorial integrity within the face of all terrorists and their supporters,” throughout calls with regional leaders on Saturday.
Assad mentioned Syria was succesful “with the assistance of its allies and associates, of defeating and eliminating them, irrespective of how intense their terrorist assaults are.”
The insurgent offensive has reignited Syria’s long-running civil battle, which killed greater than 300,000 individuals and created almost 6 million refugees. The battle by no means formally ended and the flare-up is probably the most vital since 2020, when Russia and Turkey reached a ceasefire in Idlib.
On Sunday, Assad informed Abbas Araghchi – the visiting international minister of Iran, which has backed Assad within the civil battle – that he intends to battle “with all power and dedication and all through (Syria’s) territory.”
The rebels are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria that used to go by the identify Al-Nusra Front, together with teams backed by Turkey and others beforehand supported by the US.
This presents a dilemma for Western governments, Asli Aydintasbas, a Visiting Fellow at Brookings Institution, informed CNN.
“Should they be cheering the opposition taking on Syria’s second-largest metropolis Aleppo, or ought to they really fear in regards to the metropolis falling below Islamist rule?” she mentioned.
Aydintasbas believes the occasions which have unfolded in Syria present a brand new stability of energy within the nation, with Turkey rising as a “main actor,” whereas Russia’s energy is weakened and Iran is “on its again foot.”
Complicating issues is that some members of the insurgent coalition are additionally combating Kurdish forces.
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, which is a part of the insurgent coalition, mentioned Sunday it had seized management of town of Tal Rifaat and the cities of Ain Daqna and Sheikh Issa within the northern a part of the Aleppo governorate. It additionally claimed to have captured the villages of Shaaleh and Nairabiyyeh in Aleppo’s northern countryside.
Those territories have been beforehand held not by the federal government of Bashar al-Assad however by one other faction concerned within the multi-front civil battle, the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Syrian Democratic Forces are largely made up of Kurdish fighters from a bunch referred to as the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), which is taken into account a terrorist group by neighboring Turkey.
The Syrian Democratic Forces have beforehand fought different Syrian opposition teams, however have up to now acquired backing from the US for its battle towards ISIS.
