Syrian troops withdraw from Aleppo as rebels advance
Syrian government forces have pulled out of Aleppo following a rebel offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The military confirmed that rebels had seized control of “large parts” of the city, Syria’s second largest, but pledged to launch a counteroffensive.
This marks one of the most intense clashes in Syria’s civil war in recent years. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), over 300 people have been killed since the fighting began on Wednesday, including at least 20 civilians.
On Saturday, President Assad vowed to “protect Syria’s stability and territorial integrity against all terrorists and their supporters.” His office quoted him saying, “[The country] is capable, with the support of its allies, of defeating and eradicating them, no matter how severe their attacks.”
The civil war, which started in 2011 after the Assad regime responded to pro-democracy protests with a violent crackdown, has resulted in nearly half a million deaths.
The conflict has been largely dormant since a ceasefire agreed in 2020, but opposition forces have maintained control of the north-western city of Idlib and much of the surrounding province.
Idlib sits just 55km (34 miles) from Aleppo, which itself was a rebel stronghold until it fell to government forces in 2016.
The latest offensive has been led by a jihadist group known at Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions backed by Turkey.
HTS was regarded as one of the most effective and deadly of the groups fighting the Assad government and was already the dominant force in Idlib.
The rebels have taken control of Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns, according to the SOHR.
They also announced a curfew which came into force at 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and will remain in place until Sunday.
The Syrian army said rebels had launched “a broad attack from multiple axes on the Aleppo and Idlib fronts” and that battles had taken place “over a strip exceeding 100km (60 miles)”.
Dozens of its soldiers have been killed, it said.
The Russian air force, which played a significant role in keeping Assad in power during the peak of the civil war, carried out air strikes in Aleppo on Saturday.
The strikes marked the first it has staged in the city since helping Syrian government forces recapture it in 2016.
Pictures showed the roads leading out of Aleppo jammed with cars on Saturday as people tried to leave.
