BEIRUT: Insurgent forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad have launched their biggest offensive in years this week, controlling a majority of Syria’s second metropolis of Aleppo in response to a monitor.
Authorities forces supplied little resistance, the battle monitor stated, and the military admitted that rebels had entered “massive components” of the town.
Why have the Syrian rebels and their allies from Turkish-backed factions determined to assault after years of relative calm, and what’s at stake?
WHY NOW?
On Wednesday (Nov 27), Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist alliance led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria department, and allied factions attacked government-held areas of the northern province of Aleppo and the northwestern Idlib area.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights battle monitor stated the rebels had seized dozens of cities and villages within the north and “took management of most of” Aleppo.
The violence has killed at the very least 311 folks, principally combatants on each side, but in addition together with at the very least 28 civilians, stated the Observatory, which depends on a community of sources inside Syria.
Dareen Khalifa, a researcher on the Worldwide Disaster Group assume tank, stated the rebels had ready months for this offensive.
“They’ve framed it as a defensive transfer in opposition to regime escalation,” Khalifa stated, as Syrian authorities and Russian strikes on the world intensified main as much as the assault.
However HTS and their allies are “additionally wanting on the broader regional and geostrategic shift”, she stated.