Syrian rebels defend gains in Aleppo, push south

Syrian rebel fighters defended their gains in Aleppo on Saturday, a day after breaching the city, while pushing south toward Hama and claiming control of government-held areas along the way.

The insurgent offensive, shocking for its speed, has posed the most serious challenge to the authority of President Bashar al-Assad in years. Government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, in many places appeared to have retreated or just melted away. Videos posted by the rebels or opposition activists appeared to show captured government soldiers in several places, including Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and a military air base in the northwestern province of Idlib.

“Assad forces completely collapse in northern and central Syria,” rebel commanders said a WhatsApp message late Saturday.

The claim from the military operations room of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist rebel group that’s leading the offensive, could not immediately be verified. But the Syrian army, in a statement earlier Saturday, said it was redeploying forces from areas it had controlled in Aleppo and Idlib provinces with the aim of “strengthening the defense lines in order to absorb the attack.”

The surprise HTS offensive has abruptly shifted the long-fixed front lines in Syria’s civil war, which began after an uprising against the government in 2011. The rebels’ rapid advance from the insurgent stronghold in Idlib has also posed a challenge to Assad’s main sponsors, Russia and Iran, at a moment when they’re preoccupied with conflicts in Ukraine and Lebanon.

Iran’s foreign minister was expected Sunday in Damascus, the Syrian capital, Syria’s state news agency reported. A senior Iraqi official said Baghdad was sending reinforcements to Iraq’s border with Syria “to prevent terrorist groups from infiltrating” the country. “These are precautionary measures due to the very concerning situation in Syria,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.

Syrian rebels breached the western limits of Aleppo on Friday, video confirmed by The Washington Post shows. By evening, they could be seen driving through the streets, honking horns and firing weapons in apparent celebration.

Rebel forces appeared Saturday to have wrested control of most of Aleppo, witnesses said, as thousands of civilians fled. Videos showed rebel fighters at the city’s main airport, and at the Citadel, the medieval palace in the center of the city, according to videos verified by The Post.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, an opposition activist from Aleppo, told The Post late Saturday that government forces retained control of just one area of the city, a military academy. Alhamdo, a professor of English, had been exiled from the city since 2016, when government forces retook it from rebels.

He returned early Friday, he said, a few hours after rebels entered. Since then, he had visited places he knew, including the Citadel and the Aleppo University dormitories. There, he found tearful students worried about what the rebel incursion meant.

“I told them I am sure you will be safer, God willing,” he said. Assad and his government had “colonized their minds,” he said, indoctrinating them to fear his opponents. The rebels were committed to treat people “with morals,” he was sure. “This is the most successful battle in the history of the revolution.”

But he added: “I cannot tell you people were relaxed or happy at the beginning.”

A priest in Aleppo said members of his congregation had been sheltering in their church since Friday. “We’re hearing strikes in the distance but we don’t know where it’s coming from,” said the priest, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.

From the church, they could not see the armed men who roamed the streets – some of them hardline Islamist fighters who have treated religious minorities in Syria harshly.

“Everything you’ve been hearing about, we’ve been living,” the priest said.

The rebels, pushing south from Idlib, appeared to recapture several towns they had lost to the government in 2020. In one video posted to social media, a rebel describes his location in the town of Ltamenah, just south of the Idlib border. Late Saturday, HTS said it had taken control of several areas on the outskirts of Hama, a government-controlled city.

At least four armored vehicles from the Syrian army massed at a roundabout near the northern edge of the city of Hama, video posted to social media late Saturday showed.

The Syrian army said it was “ready to repel any terrorist attack” in the city. “We call on our fellow citizens not to believe the rumors and lies being spread regarding the situation on the ground.”