{"id":19832,"date":"2024-11-30T08:51:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T08:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19832"},"modified":"2024-11-30T08:51:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T08:51:46","slug":"syrian-rebels-take-control-of-majority-of-aleppo-observers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19832","title":{"rendered":"Syrian rebels take control of majority of Aleppo, observers say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rebel forces in Syria have taken control of “half” of the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo, according to the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).<\/p>\n

SOHR said 277 people – including more than 20 civilians – have been killed since the offensive started on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The offensive is the largest against the Syrian government in years and the first time rebels fighting the forces of President Bashar al-Assad have reached Aleppo since being forced out by the army in 2016.<\/p>\n

Aleppo’s airport and all roads leading into the city have been closed, military sources told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The rebels were able to capture “half of Aleppo” without meeting significant resistance, SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency early on Saturday.<\/p>\n

There “has been no fighting, not a single shot was fired, as regime forces withdrew”, he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, government forces said they had regained positions in a number of towns in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, following the offensive launched by HTS and allied factions <\/b>on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Video posted on a channel affiliated with the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) appears to show\u00a0rebel fighters in vehicles inside the city. <\/p>\n

BBC Verify has geolocated the footage to a western suburb of Aleppo.<\/p>\n

More than half a million people have been killed in the civil war that erupted after the government cracked down on pro-democracy protests in 2011. <\/p>\n

An array of armed groups opposed to the Assad government – including jihadists – took advantage of the turmoil to seize swathes of territory.<\/p>\n

The Syrian government – with help from Russia and other allies – later retook most the areas it had lost. <\/p>\n

Idlib, the last remaining opposition stronghold, is mostly controlled by HTS, but Turkish-backed rebel factions and Turkish forces are also based there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Syrian and Russian planes carried out 23 air strikes near Idlib on Friday, according to SOHR.<\/p>\n

The UK-based monitoring group, which uses a network of sources on the ground in Syria, said four civilians were killed and 19 others were injured in the Russian strikes.<\/p>\n

Russia’s military said it had bombed “extremist forces”, according to Russian news agencies.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed his support for “the government of Syria to quickly restore order” and said the country’s sovereignty was under attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Footage<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The rebel move on the city of Aleppo is a significant challenge to the authority of Syria and its ally, Russia<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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On Friday, a statement posted on a rebel-affiliated channel said: “Our forces have begun entering the city of Aleppo.” <\/p>\n

Videos verified by the BBC show armed men running in a street about seven kilometres (4.3 miles) from Aleppo’s medieval citadel in the centre of the city.<\/p>\n

Another clip verified by the BBC showed large groups of people carrying luggage walking away from an area near Aleppo University. That video was recorded 3km away from a location where HTS-affiliated media claim rebel forces have entered the city.<\/p>\n

Aleppo resident Sarmad told AFP he could hear “the sounds of missiles and artillery shelling around the clock”.<\/p>\n

“We’re scared that war will break out and we’ll be displaced from our homes again,” the 51-year-old said.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s deputy regional humanitarian co-ordinator for Syria, David Carden, said he was deeply alarmed by the impact of the escalating hostilities on civilians.<\/p>\n

“Relentless attacks over the past three days have claimed the lives of at least 27 civilians, including children as young as eight years old”, he said.<\/p>\n

Fighting in Idlib had largely wound down since 2020, when Turkey and Russia, Syria’s key ally, brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake the province. <\/p>\n

But on Wednesday HTS and its allies said they had launched their offensive to \u201cdeter aggression\u201d, accusing the government and allied militias of escalation in the region.<\/p>\n

It came as the Syrian government and its allies were preoccupied with other conflicts.<\/p>\n

In neighbouring Lebanon, an Israeli military campaign has devastated the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, whose fighters helped turned the tide of the Syrian civil war.<\/p>\n

Israel has also stepped up its air strikes inside Syria on targets linked to Iran and Iran-backed groups. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Map<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Additional reporting by Lina Sinjab in Beirut and Richard Irvine-Brown, Merlyn Thomas and Paul Brown in London.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebel forces in Syria have taken control of “half” of the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo, according to the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). SOHR said 277 people – including more than 20 civilians – have been killed since the offensive started on Wednesday. The offensive is the largest against the Syrian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}