Syrian and Russian warplanes are stepping up attacks on rebels after the opposition captured large parts of Aleppo

CNN
—

Syrian and Russian fighter jets are stepping up attacks on opposition forces in northern Syria in retaliation for the sudden offensive that has seen the regime lose control of the country’s second largest city, Aleppo.

The offensive has also led to the rebel alliance seizing a key military base east of Aleppo and large parts of Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It has faced little resistance on the ground from regime forces and also comes at a time when Syria’s main backers – Iran and Russia – are focused on their own conflicts.

The rebels’ resounding success presented President Bashar al-Assad with his biggest challenge in eight years, as Russian air power helped reverse rebel gains in the civil war.

The newly formed rebel coalition, calling itself the military task force, has seized key locations across Aleppo, including the airport, where videos confirmed by CNN showed fighters in camouflage clothing inside the main terminal.

The rebels consolidated their gains on Sunday and captured key military sites in the east of the city of Aleppo. But they have left some neighborhoods in the hands of Kurdish forces.

Due to opposition forces’ control over Aleppo, the regime’s counteroffensive as promised by the Syrian Defense Ministry would be very difficult to carry out.

Government aircraft – along with Russian planes based in Syria – have carried out bombing raids on opposition positions in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama.

The official Russian news agency TASS quoted the Syrian army command in a report on Sunday as saying its air forces had “intensified attacks on terrorist positions and their supply lines, killing and wounding dozens.”

An airstrike near Aleppo University on Sunday killed at least four people, according to a social media video geolocated by CNN.

It is unclear whether the attack was carried out by Russian or Syrian regime aircraft. The strike follows a strike on Saturday in which several people were killed in a square in western Aleppo.

Meanwhile, a Russian attack damaged a Franciscan monastery in Aleppo, according to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, although no injuries were reported, according to Vatican News.

The White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer service, said at least four people were killed on Sunday in airstrikes on the city of Idlib, a province that now appears to be entirely in rebel hands.

In his first comments since swiftly seizing power, Assad said during talks with regional leaders on Saturday that Syria would continue to “defend its stability and territorial integrity in the face of all terrorists and their supporters.”

Assad said Syria is capable of “defeating and eliminating them, no matter how intense their terrorist attacks, with the help of its allies and friends.”

The rebel offensive has reignited Syria’s long-running civil war, which has killed more than 300,000 people and resulted in nearly 6 million refugees. The conflict has never officially ended and the flare-up is the most significant since 2020, when Russia and Turkey agreed a ceasefire in Idlib.

On Sunday, Assad told Abbas Araghchi – Iran’s foreign minister, who backed Assad in the civil war – that he intended to fight “with all strength and determination and across the entire (Syrian) territory.”

The rebels are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, as well as groups backed by Turkey and others , which were previously supported by the USA.

This poses a dilemma for Western governments, Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CNN.

“Should they be cheering the opposition’s takeover of Syria’s second city, Aleppo, or should they actually be worried about the city falling under Islamist rule?” she said.

Aydintasbas believes that events in Syria show a new balance of power in the country, with Turkey becoming the “main actor”, while Russia’s power is weakening and Iran is “in retreat”.

To make matters worse, some members of the rebel coalition are also fighting against Kurdish forces.

The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, part of the rebel coalition, said on Sunday it had taken control of the town of Tal Rifaat and the towns of Ain Daqna and Sheikh Issa in the northern part of Aleppo governorate. It also claimed to have captured the villages of Shaaleh and Nairabiyyeh in the northern outskirts of Aleppo.

These areas were not previously owned by Bashar al-Assad’s government, but rather by another faction involved in the civil war on multiple fronts: the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Syrian Democratic Forces are largely made up of Kurdish fighters from a group called the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is classified as a terrorist organization by neighboring Türkiye.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have previously fought against other Syrian opposition groups, but have received support from the US in the past for their fight against ISIS.