BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of Syrian rebels took control of most of Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country’s largest city and taking control of its airport before expanding their surprise offensive into a neighboring province. They faced little resistance from government forces, according to fighters and activists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that opposition fighters led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham took control of Aleppo International Airport, the first international airport controlled by militants. The fighters claimed that they had captured the airport and published photos from there.
Thousands of fighters also advanced, facing almost no opposition from government forces, to seize towns and villages in northern Hama, a governorate where they had a presence before being expelled by government forces in 2016. They claimed on Saturday evening that they had entered the city of Hama. Mother-in-law.
A huge embarrassment for Assad
The rapid and sudden attack represents a great embarrassment to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and raises questions about the readiness of his armed forces. The attack launched by the rebels from their stronghold in the northwest of the country appears to have been planned for years. It also comes at a time when Assad’s allies were preoccupied with their own conflicts.
In his first public statements since the start of the attack, published by the official news agency on Saturday evening, Assad said that 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 severe their attacks are.
Turkey, the main backer of Syrian opposition groups, said its diplomatic efforts had failed to stop government attacks on opposition-controlled areas in recent weeks, which were a violation of a de-escalation agreement sponsored by Russia, Iran and Ankara. Turkish security officials said that a limited attack by opposition fighters was planned to stop government attacks and allow civilians to return, but the attack expanded as Syrian government forces began to withdraw from their positions.
The militants, led by the Salafist jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and including Turkish-backed fighters, launched their shocking attack on Wednesday. They first launched a two-pronged attack in Aleppo and the Idlib countryside, then they entered Aleppo two days later and secured a strategic town located on the highway linking the largest Syrian city to the capital and the coast.
By Saturday evening, they had taken control of at least four towns in the central Hama province and claimed to have entered the provincial capital. The militants carried out an attempt to regain the areas they controlled in Hama in 2017, but it failed.
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Preparing for a counterattack
The Syrian Armed Forces said in a statement on Saturday that they had redeployed forces and equipment and were preparing for a counterattack, in order to absorb the major attack on Aleppo and save lives. The statement acknowledged that the rebels had entered large parts of the city, but said that they had not established bases or checkpoints. Later on Saturday, the armed forces sought to refute what they said were lies in reference to reports of the withdrawal or defection of their forces, saying that the General Command was carrying out its duties in “fighting terrorist organizations.”
The return of militants to Aleppo was the first since 2016, after a grueling military campaign in which Assad’s forces received support from Russia, Iran, and their allied groups.
The battle of Aleppo in 2016 was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters after the 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war. After appearing to lose control of the country to the rebels, the battle for Aleppo ensured Assad’s control over strategic areas of Syria, with opposition factions and their foreign backers controlling areas on the periphery.
The blitz threatened to reignite the country’s civil war, which had been largely at a standstill for years.
Witnesses said late on Friday that two air strikes hit the outskirts of the city of Aleppo, targeting opposition reinforcements and landing near residential areas. The Observatory said 20 fighters were killed.
The rebels were photographed outside the police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo Citadel, a medieval palace located in the center of the Old City, and one of the largest palaces in the world. They tore down Assad posters, trampled on some and burned others.
The advance towards Aleppo came after weeks of escalating low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-controlled areas.
The attack came at a time when groups linked to Iran, especially Lebanese Hezbollah, which has been supporting Syrian government forces since 2015, were busy with their own battles at home. A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month-old war with Israel went into effect on Wednesday, the same day Syrian opposition factions announced their attack. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria over the past 70 days.
Rebels raise flags over the Aleppo Citadel
Opposition fighter Muhammad al-Abdo, speaking from the heart of the city in Saadallah al-Jabri Square, said that this is the first time he has returned to Aleppo in 13 years, when his older brother was killed at the beginning of the war.
He added: “God willing, the rest of Aleppo Governorate will be liberated” from government forces.
Traffic was light in the city center on Saturday. Opposition fighters fired into the air in celebration, but there was no sign of clashes or the presence of government forces.
Journalists in the city photographed soldiers captured by the rebels and the bodies of others killed in the battle.
Abdul Kafi al-Hamdo, a teacher who fled Aleppo in 2016 and returned on Friday night after hearing that rebels were inside, described “mixed feelings of pain, sadness, and old memories.”
“When I entered Aleppo, I kept telling myself this was impossible. How did this happen?
Al-Hamdo said he was walking around the city at night to visit the Aleppo Citadel, where the rebels raised their flags, a main square and the University of Aleppo, as well as the last place he was before he had to leave for the countryside.
“I was walking in the (empty) streets of Aleppo screaming: ‘Oh people, oh people of Aleppo. We are your children,’” he told The Associated Press in a series of messages.
City hospitals are full
Aleppo residents reported hearing clashes and gunfire, but most remained in their homes. Some fled the fighting.
Schools and government offices were closed on Saturday with most people remaining at home, according to pro-government Sham FM radio. The bakeries were open. Witnesses said that the gunmen deployed security forces throughout the city to prevent any violence or looting.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that the two main government hospitals in Aleppo were full of patients while many private facilities closed their doors.
In social media posts, the rebels were photographed outside the castle, a medieval palace located in the center of the old city, and one of the largest palaces in the world. In cell phone videos, they recorded themselves talking to residents they visited at the house, trying to reassure them that they would not cause any 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 area after fleeing fighting in Aleppo, which has a large Kurdish population.
State media reported that a number of “terrorists,” including sleeper cells, had infiltrated parts of the city. They added that government forces chased them and arrested a number of people who took photos near city landmarks.
On a morning program on state television on Saturday, commentators said army reinforcements and Russia’s help would repel “terrorist groups,” and blamed Turkey for supporting the rebel advance into Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
Russian TASS news agency quoted Oleg Ignasyuk, the Russian Defense Ministry official coordinating in Syria, as saying that Russian warplanes targeted and killed 200 militants who launched the attack in the northwest of the country on Friday. No further details were provided.
