by Admin
Nov 30, 2024
In a surprise attack against the largest city in Syria after Kurds militants launched an offensive against the city on Friday, killing several civilians and Syrian soldiers for the first time in the past nine years.
The attack has left the city in ruins and thousands of civilians to flee the city. It has increased tensions in the Middle East, which has experienced endless fighting since Hamas orchestrated an offensive against Israel last year October.
The city of Aleppo has not suffered such enormous attacks since 2016 after the Syrian forces retook control of the city with the help of Russian and Iranian forces in a bloody military operation against ISIS and Kurdish militants.
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) of the Kurdish Liberation Front began a major offensive on Wednesday earlier this week from their base in the Idlib countryside, a narrow patch of land located in Syria’s northwest province.
In a deadly offensive against the Syrian army, the armed militiamen reached the city of Aleppo within three days after a series of clashes and missile attacks in the city.
The Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport as well as all roads leading into the city on Saturday and have ordered the Syrian troops to withdraw from the city in preparation for a major counter-offensive against the militants in the next 48 hours.
Russia’s su-34 jet fighters carried out a series of air strikes against the insurgents killing two hundred militants on Friday night while President Putin of Russia announced a new shipment of weapons to Syria on Monday.
David Carden, the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis said that the three-day battle left 27 civilians killed. At the same time, hundreds more were injured from mortar shells and rocket barrages.
The rebel forces in a swift wave recaptured dozens of towns and villages in the Aleppo countryside, seizing a military base, weapons, and tanks from Syrian government forces.
In the heat of the battle some Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups based elsewhere in north-west Syria joined the fighting and launched their offensive against the Syrian government forces taking over the Aleppo government headquarters and Aleppo University.
Dareen Khalifa, of the nonprofit International Crisis Group said “The regime’s lines of defense have crumbled, I think they were taken aback. No one anticipated how fast the rebels would reach towards the edge of Aleppo.”
Bashar Assad’s government which began in 2011 has witnessed endless violence and fragile peace since it took power and reclaimed lost territories in 2016 from rebel forces.
However, President Assad has yet to address the situation in Aleppo as the Syrian government continues to scrabble around for more support from Russia and Iran.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying “The regime’s lines of defense have crumbled, I think they were taken aback. No one anticipated how fast the rebels would reach towards the edge of Aleppo”.
Prodesq political war analyst Temitope Oladeji said the attack on Aleppo has the hands of the Israeli government all written over it, in the past few days Israel has dramatically escalated airstrikes against Iranian forces stationed on the ground in Syria, carrying out over 116 strikes on Syrian territory killing 100 civilians and have left over 500,000 people to relocate.
However, Temitope Oladeji further stated that the attack on Aleppo is a major escalation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in which observers have seen Ukrainian mercenaries in Syria carrying out attacks on Russian weapons deports in Syria and training Syrian rebels in the operation of drones.
Dmitry Peskov, The Kremlin spokesperson on Friday said that Moscow regarded the rebel attack as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty and wanted the authorities to act fast to regain control.