Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday sought to shore up support from his allies, after a monitor said a shock rebel offensive saw government forces lose control of Aleppo for the first time since the start of the nation’s civil war.
An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance attacked forces of the Iranian and Russian-backed government on Wednesday last week, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighboring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah after two months of all-out war.
The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group and allied factions now “control Aleppo city, except the neighborhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Photo: AFP
For the first time since the civil war started more than a decade ago, the nation’s second city “is out of control of Syrian regime forces,” he said.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi traveled to Damascus on Sunday to meet al-Assad, saying before his departure that Tehran would “firmly support the Syrian government and army,” Iranian state media reported.
After the talks, al-Assad emphasized “the importance of the support of allies and friends in confronting foreign-backed terrorist attacks.”
Araghchi landed late on Sunday in Ankara, where he was expected to meet with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan yesterday before talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Syrian and Russian aircraft had staged deadly strikes in support of government forces earlier on Sunday, the observatory said.
It said strikes killed at least 12 people in Aleppo and nine civilians in the rebel bastion of Idlib.
Russia’s military confirmed it was helping Syrian government forces “repel terrorist aggression in the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.”
The Russian and Syrian warplanes had targeted “a gathering of terrorist organization commanders and large groups of their members” in Aleppo, killing “dozens,” according to a military statement carried by Syrian state news agency SANA.
It also said warplanes destroyed a large vehicle convoy carrying “terrorist” ammunition and equipment in Idlib.
In the province on Sunday, bodies lay in a hospital and vehicles were torched in the street.
Resident Umm Mohamed said strikes in the area had killed her daughter-in-law, who left behind five children, including a wounded little girl.
“Thank God their injuries were minor,” she said from hospital.
The latest fighting has killed more than 412 people, mostly combatants, but also at least 61 civilians, according to the observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
The observatory said rebel advances met little resistance.
It said on Sunday the army strengthened its positions around Syria’s fourth-largest city Hama, about 230km south of Aleppo, and sent reinforcements to the north of the surrounding province.
Rebels have taken dozens of towns across the north, including Khan Sheikhun and Maaret al-Numan, roughly halfway between Aleppo and Hama, the observatory said.
Aaron Stein, president of the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, said “Russia’s presence has thinned out considerably and quick reaction airstrikes have limited utility.”
He called the rebel advance “a reminder of how weak the regime is.”
“Aleppo seems to be lost for the regime, and unless they manage to mount a counteroffensive soon, or unless Russia and Iran send much more support, I don’t think the government will get it back, and a government without Aleppo is not really a functional government of Syria,” Aron Lund of the Century International think tank said.
The US, France, Germany and the UK on Sunday called for “de-escalation” in Syria, and for the protection of civilians and infrastructure.
“The current escalation only underscores the urgent need for a Syrian-led political solution to the conflict, in line with UNSCR 2254,” said a statement issued by the US Department of State, referencing the 2015 UN resolution that endorsed a peace process in Syria.
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