Syria’s military has announced a “temporary troop withdrawal” in the northwestern city of Aleppo, where rebel groups launched a surprise offensive on government-held positions for the first time in years.
The military said on Saturday that dozens of its soldiers had been killed or wounded in fierce battles with “armed terrorist organisations” in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib over the previous few days and that it was now regrouping, redeploying troops to strengthen its defence lines as it prepared a “counterattack”.
It said rebel groups had launched “a broad attack from multiple axes on the Aleppo and Idlib fronts”, reporting clashes “over a strip exceeding 100km [60 miles]”.
The army said the rebels had entered large parts of Aleppo but army bombardment had stopped them from establishing fixed positions. It promised to “expel them and restore the control of the state … over the entire city and its countryside”.
The statement marked the military’s first public acknowledgement that opposition fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group had entered Aleppo in the lightning attack that began earlier this week.
“We’ve been waiting for this” for years, rebel fighter Mohamed Hammadi told the AFP news agency in a square in Aleppo, Syria’s pre-war manufacturing hub.
“We are going to clear all of Syria, God willing,” the 29-year-old said.
Later on Sunday, Syria’s military also sent reinforcements to the province of Hama, where rebels claimed they were advancing, as President Bashar al-Assad pledged to use the “language of force” to “break and eliminate” what he described as “terrorism”.
‘Unbelievable’
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said central and northwestern parts of Aleppo are fully under the control of the HTS-led fighters, with rebels claiming to press on towards the city of Hama.
“That this happened in just four days is unbelievable,” he said.
Aleppo had been under full state control since government forces backed by Russia and Iran drove out rebels eight years ago.
On Friday, Syrian state television said Russia was providing Syria’s military with air support.
The Syria Civil Defence, commonly known as the White Helmets, operating in opposition-held parts of the country, said in a post on X that Russian and Syrian government aircraft carried out air attacks on residential neighbourhoods, a petrol station and a school in rebel-held Idlib, killing four civilians and wounding six others.
Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport and cancelled all flights on Saturday, according to three military sources cited by the Reuters news agency.
The rebels said they have also captured the Abu al-Duhur airbase in the Idlib governorate and have taken control of a key highway that links Aleppo to the capital, Damascus.
On Saturday, a witness in Aleppo told Al Jazeera that rebel fighters were “combing” Aleppo in search of soldiers.
“Last night, they had some prisoners of war, regime soldiers, but they took very good care of them and moved them out immediately so they wouldn’t be in any danger,” the witness said.
The advance by HTS-led fighters opened the way for some long-displaced civilians to return to their homes.
The rebel fighters also ordered a curfew in Aleppo until 5pm (15:00 GMT) Sunday for the safety of residents, AFP reported.
Syria’s ‘reliance on Russia and Iran’
The rebel assault is the most intense fighting seen in northwestern Syria since 2020, when Russia and Turkiye agreed to a deal to de-escalate the conflict after government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters.
Turkiye has backed an array of opposition forces and established a military presence in parts of northwestern Syria.
The United States suggested that Assad’s dependence on Moscow and Tehran had paved the way for the loss of Aleppo.
Syria’s “reliance on Russia and Iran”, along with its refusal to move forward with a 2015 peace process outlined by the United Nations Security Council, “created the conditions now unfolding”, National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement on Saturday.
The US forces are deployed in northeastern Syria in support of Syrian Kurdish forces battling ISIL (ISIS) fighters.
Al Jazeera’s Serdar said the Syrian government was caught off guard by the swift rebel operation, attributing their rapid advance to its allies Hezbollah and Iran being distracted by the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Now the question is: will the regime or Russia or Iran let HTS have full control of the second-largest city in Syria, or are they going to hit back?” said Serdar.
Russia, whose air support was decisive in turning the tide in the government’s favour back in 2015, joined Iran on Saturday in expressing “extreme concern” over their ally’s losses.
“Strong support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic was reaffirmed,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a readout of a call between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.
Tehran said Araghchi would travel to Damascus on Sunday for talks. “I am going to Damascus to convey the message of the Islamic Republic to the Syrian government,” Araghchi said, emphasising Tehran will “firmly support the Syrian government and army”, according to the IRNA news agency.
Apart from Araghchi, Lavrov on Saturday also discussed the escalating situation with his Turkish counterpart, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS.
According to the statement, “the ministers agreed with the need to make more active joint efforts aimed at stabilising the situation in Syria”.
HTS has become the strongest opposition group in northwestern Syria, controlling much of Idlib province near the Turkish border.
It is considered a “terrorist” organisation by Syria, the US and Russia.
Formerly known as al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, HTS later changed its name several times and distanced itself from al-Qaeda.
