Syrian rebels enter Aleppo for the first time in eight years during a shock offensive

CNN
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Armed Syrian rebels have entered Aleppo just three days after launching their surprise offensive. This is the first time they have set foot in the country’s second largest city since government forces recaptured the city in 2016.

Rebel forces launched a surprise attack this week that hit several villages outside the city, reigniting the conflict that had been largely dormant for years.

In a video geolocated by CNN, a rebel fighter is filmed driving through the deserted streets to the west of the city. He can be heard praising God as the vehicle approaches the Zine El Abidine Mosque in western Aleppo.

The official Syrian military said it was facing a “major attack” and claimed it would “reinforce all locations along the various battle fronts.” However, several city residents say regime forces have withdrawn from several neighborhoods in western Aleppo.

The offensive, which began on Wednesday, is the first major conflict in years between the Syrian opposition and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who has ruled the war-torn country since 2000.

“Our forces have begun to enter the city of Aleppo,” the newly formed rebel coalition military operations command said.

The rebel group previously announced that it had seized control of the Syrian government’s military science research center on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo after “fierce clashes with regime forces and Iranian militias.”

In an attack early Friday, an artillery shell hit student dormitories at Aleppo University, killing four people, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA, which blamed opposition groups for the attack. Rebel group spokesman Hassan Abdulghani dismissed the Syrian government media’s allegations as “baseless lies.”

An Aleppo University employee, who spoke anonymously for security reasons, confirmed that an artillery shell hit the second floor of a dormitory where students were staying at the time. A video circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN shows young men running from a dormitory on the Aleppo University campus carrying an injured person.

At least 15 civilians, including six children and two women, were killed and 36 others injured in airstrikes and shelling in rebel-held areas in Aleppo and the Idlib area on Thursday, according to the volunteer rescue group White Helmets. Iranian state media reported that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) brigadier general, Kioumars Pourhashemi, was also killed in the city.

In a phone call with his Syrian counterpart to discuss the escalation, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States and Israel of “reactivating” the rebels and “emphasized Iran’s continued support” for the Syrian government and army.

The Syrian government responded with airstrikes on the city of Idlib, one of the last remaining opposition strongholds and home to more than four million people. The White Helmets said “Russian-Syrian alliance aircraft” attacked “residential neighborhoods, a gas station and a school in the city of Idlib” on Friday, killing at least four people and wounding six others.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called on Syrian authorities to “quickly restore order in this area and restore constitutional order.” Both Iran and Russia are important allies of Syria.

The Syrian Civil War began during the 2011 Arab Spring, when the regime suppressed a pro-democracy uprising against Assad. The country plunged into full-scale civil war when a rebel force called the Free Syrian Army was formed to fight government troops.

The conflict intensified as other regional actors and world powers – from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia – joined in, escalating the civil war into what some observers called a “proxy war.” IS was also able to gain a foothold in the country before suffering serious setbacks.

Since the 2020 ceasefire agreement, the conflict has been largely dormant, with low-level clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime. More than 300,000 civilians have been killed and millions of people displaced across the region in more than a decade of war, according to the United Nations.

This story has been updated with additional developments.