Aleppo: Syria rebels claim to have entered country's second city

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a monitoring organization based in the UK, rebel groups in Syria have gained control over multiple areas in Aleppo, the nation's second-largest city.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), as of Friday evening, insurgents had taken control of over 50% of the city.

This action represents the most significant attack on the Syrian government in several years. It's also the first occasion since 2016 that rebels opposing President Bashar al-Assad's forces have made it back to Aleppo after being expelled by the army.

A video shared on a channel linked to the Islamist militant organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seems to display rebel fighters traveling in vehicles within the city.

BBC Verify has pinpointed the location of the video to a western neighborhood in Aleppo.

In the meantime, government troops report that they have reclaimed several areas in the Aleppo and Idlib regions after an attack initiated by HTS and its allied groups earlier on Wednesday.

Over 500,000 individuals have lost their lives in the civil war that began when the government responded harshly to pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011.

A variety of militant factions, including jihadist groups, capitalized on the chaos to capture large areas of land that were previously under the control of the Assad administration.

The Syrian government, supported by Russia and its other allies, eventually regained control of the majority of the territories it had previously lost.

Idlib, the final bastion of opposition forces, is mainly under the control of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). However, there are also Turkish-backed rebel groups and Turkish military presence in the area.

On Friday, a message shared on a channel linked to the rebels announced, "Our troops have started to move into the city of Aleppo."

Footage confirmed by the BBC depicts armed individuals moving along a road approximately seven kilometers (4.3 miles) away from Aleppo's historic citadel located in the city's center.

A different video confirmed by the BBC depicted several groups of individuals with baggage moving away from a spot close to Aleppo University. This footage was taken about 3 kilometers from a site where media linked to HTS report that rebel forces have entered the city.

The authorities have announced that backup forces have arrived in Aleppo and they are pushing the rebels out of the city.

According to a military source who spoke with Reuters, all departures from Aleppo are grounded, and the airport is now shut down.

According to SOHR, an organization that gathers information from sources within Syria, Syrian and Russian aircraft conducted 23 aerial attacks in the Aleppo area on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 255 individuals lost their lives in the clashes, marking the most lethal confrontation between rebel groups and government forces in Syria in several years.

Since 2020, the conflict in Idlib has mostly decreased after Turkey and Russia, Syria's main ally, arranged a ceasefire to stop the government's attempt to reclaim the province.

On Wednesday, HTS and its partners announced that they had initiated their offensive to "prevent further aggression." They accused the government and its allied militias of increasing tensions in the area.

This happened while the Syrian government and its supporters were focused on different battles.

In the nearby country of Lebanon, an Israeli military operation has severely weakened the Hezbollah group, which is supported by Iran and played a crucial role in shifting the balance during the Syrian civil war.

Israel has increased its air attacks in Syria, focusing on sites associated with Iran and groups supported by Iran.

Further contributions were made by Lina Sinjab in Beirut and Richard Irvine-Brown, Merlyn Thomas, and Paul Brown in London.