Syrian rebels have launched a large-scale attack against regime forces in the western city of Aleppo, according to a Free Syrian Army source and local residents. The shooting marks the first major conflict in years between both sides.
Opposition factions announced the offensive on Wednesday (27) on their Telegram channel, calling it “Deterrence of Aggression” and claiming it was a response to recent artillery bombardments by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels seized 13 villages, including the strategic cities of Urm Al-Sughra and Anjara, as well as Base 46, the Syrian regime’s largest base in the region, according to a statement from opposition factions.
The statement added that 37 people from regime forces and allied militia were killed in the offensive.
CNN was unable to independently verify the reported casualty figures and has reached out to the Syrian government for comment.
Wednesday’s surprise attack marks the first significant conflagration between Syrian rebels and the regime since March 2020, when Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire agreement in the country.
The Syrian rebels’ Military Operations Command told CNN that its fighters liberated the town of Urm Al-Kubra, about 20 kilometers from Aleppo, after what it described as “intense battles with Assad’s forces and Iranian militias.”
Its spokesman, Hassan Abdulghani, later said the group had “carried out a precision attack against a helicopter at Al-Nayrab Airport” east of the city.
Videos circulating on social media, which CNN was unable to verify, showed smoke rising from the interior of western Aleppo. Rebel troops also operate in several villages near the site. In one video, a fighter is seen praying and celebrating in the village of Anjara, which is said to be his hometown. “Anjara is ours, not the Assad family’s,” the cameraman is heard saying.
Syrian state media did not report the clashes, while some pro-regime outlets mentioned the clashes without providing details on locations or results.
A resident of a regime-controlled neighborhood in the city of Aleppo told CNN that civilians in the New Aleppo neighborhood, one of Syria’s richest, have begun fleeing to other areas due to fear of ongoing clashes.
Opposition factions leading the offensive include everything from Islamist groups to the moderate Free Syrian Army, which was previously supported by the US and Turkey.
The civil war in Syria began during the 2011 Arab Spring, when the regime suppressed a pro-democracy uprising against Assad, who had been president since 2000. The country descended into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Army. Free Syria, to fight government troops.
The conflict escalated as other regional actors and world powers – from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia – joined in, escalating the civil war into what some observers described as a “proxy war”. The Islamic State also managed to gain a foothold in the country before suffering significant blows.
Since the 2020 ceasefire agreement, the conflict has remained largely dormant, with low-level clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime. More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the United Nations, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
This content was originally published in Syrian rebels launch major attack against government forces on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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