Syrian government loses Aleppo after lightning rebel offensive: monitor

TDT | Manama

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Government forces lost control of Syria’s second city Aleppo yesterday for the first time since the country’s civil conflict began, a war monitor said, after a lightning offensive dealt a severe blow to President Bashar al-Assad.

An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance launched its assault on forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government on Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah after two months of all-out war. The jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied factions now “control Aleppo city, except the neighbourhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces”, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

For the first time since the civil war started more than a decade ago, “Aleppo city is out of control of Syrian regime forces”, he said. The Observatory said Russian aircraft staged deadly strikes Sunday in support of the government. It said at least five people were killed when “four Russian air strikes targeted the square near Aleppo university”.

Russian strikes also killed eight civilians, including two children and a woman, in the rebel bastion of Idlib, the Observatory said. Idlib resident Umm Mohamed said she lost her daughter-in-law, who left behind five children, including a wounded little girl.

“We were sitting in the room and suddenly we heard the sound of an explosion, the walls fell on us,” she told AFP from hospital.

“From the dust, no one could see the others... I was with my son’s five children. Thank God their injuries were minor.”

In 2016 the Syrian army -- supported by Russian air power -- recaptured rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a city dominated by its landmark citadel.

Damascus also relied on Hezbollah fighters to regain swathes of Syria lost to rebels early in the war, which began in 2011 when the government crushed protests. But Hezbollah has taken heavy losses in its fight with Israel.