Anti-regime fighters and their allies blocked the Damascus-Aleppo freeway on Thursday throughout an offensive that reportedly left round 200 useless, together with civilians focused by Russian airstrikes, in accordance with a monitor.
A day earlier, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a shock assault on regime-held areas of northern Aleppo province, triggering the fiercest combating in years, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated.
The toll in ongoing battles “has risen to 182, including 102 fighters from HTS”, 19 from allied factions “and 61 regime forces and allied groups”, stated the Observatory.
“Russian air strikes on the Aleppo countryside killed 19 civilians on Thursday,” stated Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, including that one other civilian had been killed in Syrian military shelling a day earlier.
Russia is a detailed ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and first intervened in Syria’s civil struggle in 2015, turning the momentum of the battle in favor of the president, whose forces as soon as solely managed a fifth of the nation.
HTS and its allied factions “cut off the Damascus-Aleppo international M5 highway… in addition to controlling the junction between the M4 and M5 highways,” stated the Britain-based monitor.
“The highway has now been put out of service after it was reopened by regime forces years ago,” stated the monitor, which has a community of sources inside Syria.
The junction of the M5 and M4 highways connects the capital and regime coastal stronghold Latakia with the second metropolis Aleppo respectively.
Syria has been gripped by civil struggle for greater than a decade, though the depth of the battle has decreased lately.
‘Preempt’ assault
Some of the clashes, that are taking place in an space straddling Idlib and Aleppo provinces, are lower than 10 kilometers (six miles) southwest of the outskirts of Aleppo metropolis.
“This operation aims to repel the sources of fire of the criminal enemy from the frontlines,” stated Mohamed Bashir, who heads HTS’s so-called “Salvation Government,” throughout a news convention.
Analyst Nick Heras of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy stated the opposition have been “trying to preempt the possibility of a Syrian military campaign in the region of Aleppo, which Russian and Syrian government airstrikes against rebel areas has been preparing for.”
With some Türkiye-backed factions becoming a member of the offensive, he stated “Ankara is sending a message to both Damascus and Moscow to back down from their military efforts in northwest Syria,” he stated.
Opposition forces “are in a better position to take and seize villages than Russian-backed Syrian regime forces, while the Iranians are focused on Lebanon,” Heras stated.
Analyst Haid Haid stated the opposition had been “planning for this offensive for quite a while.”
But “if the rebel forces waited too long the regime would have been able to reinforce their frontlines as Hezbollah forces are no longer busy with the war in Lebanon.”
HTS controls swathes of the northwest Idlib space in addition to small components of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
A Turkish protection ministry supply stated Türkiye was following developments in northern Syria intently and had taken precautions to make sure the safety of Turkish troops there.
On Thursday, Turkish safety sources stated tensions have already been brewing between regime forces and militant teams, referring to HTS. Sources stated Türkiye’s direct intervention prevented regime forces and militants from taking up Idlib in its entirety within the interval between 2019 and 2020 when the regime’s operations worsened the scenario for its opponents, altering the border agreed upon in talks sponsored by Türkiye, Iran and Russia. Sources stated Russia and the Assad regime repeatedly carried out assaults towards Idlib and all sides claimed they launched assaults to forestall army buildup within the space.
Sources stated Türkiye prevented operations by opposition teams till in the present day in order to not escalate tensions additional within the area amid Israel’s aggression. “Türkiye also pursued international efforts and conveyed its expectations to prevent attacks by the Assad regime to guarantor countries in Astana and other platforms. Yet, international platforms did not take any steps to that extent,” the sources stated. They cited that greater than 30 civilians have been killed in assaults focusing on Idlib, together with three youngsters attending Quran college.
HTS competes with extra mainstream opposition teams backed by Türkiye that additionally management swathes of territory alongside the Turkish border.
Source: www.dailysabah.com