Syrian rebels breach city of Aleppo, in biggest advance in years
Syrian rebels breached the major city of Aleppo on Friday, according to the fighters and a war monitor, reigniting the country’s long-running civil war with an intensity not seen in years.
The rebels, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, took control of “more than half of Aleppo” within hours on Friday without resistance from Syrian government forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group based in Britain.
Independent Syrian media shared images and videos of rebels in Aleppo neighborhoods and at well-known roundabouts, celebrating.
But Syrian state media challenged this narrative, reporting that the Syrian military had captured groups of “terrorists” who were filming inside several Aleppo neighborhoods in order to prove that they had taken control of them. (Since the early days of the uprising, the government has characterized all opposition as terrorists.)
Government forces and their Russian allies earlier launched intense airstrikes on opposition-held territory on Friday, including 23 attacks on the city of Idlib, according to the Observatory. The Russian government confirmed that it was bombing Syrian rebels, but did not specify where.
The Russian ministry said it had captured more than 200 fighters in the suburbs of Aleppo and Idlib provinces as part of its joint operations with the Syrian military.
Antigovernment fighters managed earlier on Friday to enter five neighborhoods in the western part of Aleppo after detonating two car bombs targeting government soldiers, according to the rebels and the Observatory. The official Syrian news agency, SANA, reported that four people were killed when rebels fired on Aleppo University, in the western part of the city.
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency said that Aleppo’s international airport and some of its hospitals were closed, other hospitals were near capacity and security within the city was “rapidly deteriorating.” [Continue reading…]
OK folks, here's what we know so far from #Syria – a 🧵:
#Aleppo city has fallen, along with the entire western countryside & much of the south too — including the international airport & Kuweiris Airbase.
A few #Russia airstrikes, but little else.
— charleslister1.bsky.social (@charleslister1.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 1:42 PM