Russia and Syria bomb Syrian Islamist rebels after surprise attack

JERUSALEM – A radical Islamist group launched its biggest military attack against Syrian regime forces since 2020 in the northwest of the war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, unleashing Russian and Syrian warplanes on Thursday to bomb the insurgents’ offensive.

Rebels led by the U.S.-designated Islamist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo, which is controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Syrian Islamist offensive began on the same day that Assad’s ally, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah, reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel to end the more than 14-month war.

The battle unfolding in Syria pits a motley crew of US-designated state sponsors of terrorism – Assad’s regime and the Islamic Republic of Iran – against a Turkish-backed Islamist terrorist movement. Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime has been accused of war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine.

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Smoke rises during fighting between opposition factions and Syrian government forces in Majdaliya in rural Idlib, Syria, on Thursday. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Former US defense intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler, an expert on Putin, told Fox News Digital: “This is Putin’s classic playbook of what’s going on in Syria on Thanksgiving Day. In response, he is conducting a so-called lateral escalation in Syria.” Biden’s granting of authorization to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky to use US ATACMs for an attack deep inside Russia, and the acceptance of Biden by Russia and the United States Hence Putin is increasing his support for Assad, which runs counter to U.S. policy, and signals to Biden that he will counteract U.S. interests in several geographic areas.

Anti-regime groups take control of some villages in the west of the country as clashes between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition armed group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continued in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Koffler added: “Putin is signaling pressure on Biden to revoke Zelensky’s authorization to use ATACMs against Russia. The doctrine is ‘escalation to de-escalation.'” With the recent Orezhnik hypersonic missile attack on Ukraine, Putin climbed several steps up the escalation ladder. As Russian air forces join rebel-held northwest Syria, he moves sideways on the escalation ladder to escalate the U.S., keep Biden off balance and give himself as much negotiating leverage as possible over Ukraine before President Trump his second term begins. I wouldn’t be surprised if Assad attacks rebel-held areas again with chemical weapons.

Alex Grinberg, an Israeli Russia expert, told Fox News Digital that the rest of Assad’s army could not fight Hayat Tahrir al-Sham without a Russian air force.

He said that was “usually what the Russians do” in Syria.

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Iranian regime-controlled state media reported that Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed during the raid in Aleppo. Pourhashemi was a senior military adviser to the IRGC in Syria.

Anti-regime groups took control of some villages in the west of the country as clashes between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition armed group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continued in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Islamist rebels say the campaign was in response to increased attacks by Russian and Syrian air forces against civilians in areas of southern Idlib in recent weeks and to forestall any attacks by the Syrian army, which they say has deployed troops near front lines with rebels .

Assad’s war against his people, which began in 2011 with Syrians calling for democracy, has resulted in the murder of over 500,000 people.

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Iran sent thousands of fighters to Syria during the Syrian war. Although they included members of the Guard who officially acted as advisors, the majority were Shiite militiamen from across the region.

Turkish security sources said on Thursday that the rebels initially launched a limited operation after attacks by Syrian government forces and expanded the operation after government forces abandoned their positions.

Reuters contributed to this report.