Syria insurgents push their advance toward 2nd largest city Aleppo

BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of Syrian insurgents pushed on with their advances on government-held areas in the country’s northwest, reaching the outskirts of Syria’s second largest city Aleppo and wrestling control of several strategic towns and villages along the way, activists and fighters said Friday.

Syria’s state media said projectiles from insurgents landed in the student accommodations at Aleppo’s university in the city center, killing four people, including two students. Public transportation to the city has also been diverted from the main highway linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus to avoid clashes, state-controlled media reported.

Residents in Aleppo reported hearing sounds of missiles on the city’s outskirts.

Fighters also advanced on the town of Saraqab, in northwestern Idlib province, a strategic area that would secure supply lines to Aleppo.

This week’s advances were one of the largest by opposition factions, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, and comes after weeks of low simmering violence. It is most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters. It is also the largest offensive by opposition fighters on the city since they were ousted from its eastern area in 2016.

Syria’s Armed Forces said the insurgents are violating a 2019 agreement that de-escalated fighting in the area, which has been the last remaining opposition stronghold for years.

State media reported airstrikes on insurgents’ positions in Aleppo and Idlib countrysides.

The war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of fighters from both sides have been killed in the battles that started Wednesday. The insurgents have seized control of more than 50 villages in their advance, which seem to have caught the government forces unprepared.

The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, who had backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battle at home.

Israel and Hezbollah, the lead group in the Iran-backed alliance, have been locked in a war that escalated since September. A cease-fire was announced Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days. “Hezbollah was the main force in the government’s control of the city,” said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Observatory, the war monitor.

The insurgents reported that fighters have wrestled controlled of the Scientific Research Center neighborhood, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the western outskirts of Aleppo city. Government-linked media reported ongoing clashes in the area, denying the insurgents have seized it.

The Associated Press was not able to immediately verify the claims.

Insurgents posted videos online showing they were using drones in their advance, a new weapon they had not had previously in the earlier stages of their confrontation with government forces. It was not clear to what extent the drones were used on the battleground.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, reporting from Idlib, estimated that the Syrian opposition fighters have seized control of an area of some 400 square kilometers in Aleppo and Idlib province, reaching one kilometer (0.6 miles) outside of Aleppo City.

The agency also reported that the insurgents attacked a military airbase southeast of Aleppo city with drones early Friday, destroying a helicopter.

It said the opposition groups seized heavy weapons, depots and military vehicles belonging to the government forces during their advance.

Aid groups said the fighting has displaced thousands of families, and forced some services to be suspended. The opposition fighters said their offensive will allow the return of thousands of displaced people who were forced to flee government bombardment in recent weeks.

The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters since the 2011 protests against Bashar Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.

Russia and Iran and its allied groups had helped Syrian government forces reclaim control of all of Aleppo that year, after a gruelling military campaign and a siege that lasted for weeks.

Turkey has been a main backer of an array of opposition forces and its troops have established military presence in parts of northwestern Syria. Separately and largely in the east of Syria, the United States has supported Syrian Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants.

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Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.