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BEIRUT (AP) – Thousands of Syrian rebels have seized most of the Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country's largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their strike offensive into the nearby countryside. According to fighters and activists, they met almost no resistance from government troops.
A military monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had seized control of Aleppo International Airport, the first rebel-held international airport. The militants claimed to have taken over the airport and posted pictures from there.
Thousands of fighters also advanced, meeting little resistance from government forces, to capture towns and villages in northern Hama, a province where they had a presence before being driven out by government troops in 2016. They claimed to have entered the city of Hama on Saturday night.
Huge shame on Assad
The swift and surprise offensive is a huge embarrassment for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and raises questions about the readiness of his armed forces. The rebels' offensive, launched from their stronghold in the north-west of the country, appears to have been planned for years. It also comes at a time when Assad's allies have been preoccupied with their own conflicts.
In his first public comments since the start of the offensive, published by the state news agency on Saturday night, Assad said Syria would continue to “defend its stability and territorial integrity against terrorists and their supporters.” He added that Syria is capable of defeating them no matter how much their attacks intensify.
Turkey, a major backer of Syrian opposition groups, said its diplomatic efforts had failed to stop government attacks on opposition-held areas in recent weeks in violation of a de-escalation agreement sponsored by Russia, Iran and Ankara. Turkish security officials said a limited rebel offensive was planned to halt government attacks and allow civilians to return, but the offensive widened as Syrian government forces began to withdraw from their positions.
The rebels, led by the Salafi jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and including Turkish-backed fighters, launched their shock offensive on Wednesday. They first mounted a two-pronged attack in Aleppo and Idlib province, entering Aleppo two days later and securing a strategic city that sits on the highway that connects Syria's largest city to the capital and the coast.
By Saturday evening, they had captured at least four towns in the central province of Hama and claimed to have entered the provincial capital. Rebels attempted to retake areas they controlled in Hama in 2017, but failed.
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Preparing a counterattack
The Syrian Armed Forces said in a statement on Saturday that in order to take on the major assault on Aleppo and save lives, they are redeploying troops and equipment and preparing a counterattack. The statement acknowledged that the rebels had entered large parts of the city, but said they had not established bases or checkpoints. Later on Saturday, the armed forces sought to dispel what it said were lies about reports of its forces withdrawing or deserting, saying the high command was carrying out its duties in “fighting terrorist organisations”.
The rebels' return to Aleppo was their first since 2016. after a grueling military campaign in which Assad's forces were backed by Russia, Iran and their allied groups.
The Battle for Aleppo in 2016 was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after in 2011 protests against Assad's rule turned into all-out war. After the rebels appeared to be losing control of the country, the battle for Aleppo has ensured Assad's control of strategic areas of Syria, with opposition factions and their foreign backers controlling areas on the periphery.
The lightning offensive threatened to reignite the country's civil war, which had largely been at a stalemate for years.
Late on Friday, witnesses said two airstrikes hit the outskirts of Aleppo city, targeting rebel reinforcements and falling near residential areas. The Observatory said 20 militants were killed.
Rebels were pictured outside police headquarters, in the city center and outside the Aleppo Citadel, the medieval palace in the center of the old city and one of the largest in the world. They tore down posters of Assad, stepping on some and burning others.
The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas.
The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, mainly Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, are busy with their own battles at home. A ceasefire in Hezbollah's two-month war with Israel took effect on Wednesday, the same day Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks on Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria over the past 70 days.
Rebels raise flags over the citadel in Aleppo
Speaking from the heart of the city in Saadala Aljabri Square, opposition fighter Mohammad Al Abdo said he was returning to Aleppo for the first time in 13 years, when his older brother was killed at the start of the war.
“God willing, the rest of Aleppo province will be liberated” from government forces, he said.
There was light traffic in the city center on Saturday. Opposition fighters fired into the air in celebration, but there were no signs of clashes or the presence of government troops.
Journalists in the city filmed soldiers captured by the rebels and the bodies of others killed in battle.
Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher who fled Aleppo in 2016. and returned on Friday evening after hearing that the rebels were inside, described “mixed feelings of pain, sadness and old memories”.
“As I entered Aleppo, I kept telling myself that this is impossible. How did that happen?'
Alhamdo said he walked around the city at night, visiting the Aleppo citadel where rebels have raised their flags, a large square and Aleppo University, the last place he was before he was forced to leave the province.
“I was walking the (empty) streets of Aleppo shouting: 'People, people of Aleppo. We are your sons,” he told The Associated Press in a series of messages.
Hospitals in the city are full
Aleppo residents reported hearing clashes and gunfire, but most stayed indoors. Some fled the battle.
Schools and government offices were closed Saturday as most people stayed indoors, according to Sham FM radio, a pro-government station. The bakeries were open. Witnesses said the rebels had deployed security forces around the city to prevent any acts of violence or looting.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that Aleppo's two key public hospitals were full of patients, while many private facilities were closed.
In social media posts, the rebels were photographed outside the citadel, a medieval palace in the old city center and one of the largest in the world. In cellphone videos, they recorded themselves talking to the residents they visited at home, trying to reassure them they would do no harm.
The Syrian Kurdish-led administration in the east of the country said nearly 3,000 people, most of them students, had arrived in their region after fleeing fighting in Aleppo, which has a significant Kurdish population.
State media reported that a number of “terrorists”, including sleeper cells, had infiltrated parts of the city. Government troops chased them and arrested several who were posing for photos near city landmarks, they said.
On Saturday's morning broadcast on state television, commentators said Russia's army reinforcements and aid would push back “terrorist groups”, accusing Turkey of supporting the rebel push in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
Russia's state-run TASS news agency quoted Oleg Ignasyuk, a Russian defense ministry official coordinating operations in Syria, as saying Russian warplanes targeted and killed 200 fighters who launched the offensive in the country's northwest on Friday. It did not provide further details.
