At least four people were killed as rebel groups launched their first attack on Aleppo in years, Syrian state media reported, as rebel forces stormed government-held positions in the country’s northwest.
Rebels attacked the city of Aleppo after detonating two car bombs on Friday, and were facing government forces on the western outskirts of the city, according to the Syrian military.
Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that the armed groups entered the city center of Aleppo, without giving further details.
The Syrian army said on Friday it had repelled a major attack on the city.
“Our troops continue to put an end to the large-scale attacks launched by armed terrorist groups,” the army said in a statement, adding that it had “managed to regain control of some positions”.
Earlier, four people, including two students, were killed when rebels opened fire on a building housing university students on Friday, state news agency SANA reported.
Rebels led by the Hay’et Tahrir al-Shams armed group on Wednesday launched an offensive, capturing a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo.
The offensive is the heaviest fighting in northwest Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas held by the opposition, and comes after weeks of low-level violence.
Russian and Syrian warplanes bombed rebel-held areas in northwest Syria near the border with Turkey on Thursday in an attempt to push back an offensive that has taken place for the first time in years, Syrian military and rebel sources said.
In a report from Hatay, Turkiye, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said that opposition sources say they have captured more than 47 villages.
“They took over the countryside of Western Aleppo. “However, they are close to the city center of Aleppo… And the opposition groups have taken control of the M5 highway which is a strong route for transport and military transport,” he said.
“Given the situation in southern Lebanon, the opposition saw an opportunity to get these areas from the Syrian government,” he added.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said “more than 14,000 people – almost half of them children – were displaced” by the violence.
Colin Clarke, senior researcher at The Soufan Center, told Al Jazeera that the violence is an indication of how divided Syria is right now.
He said he does not expect the rebels to push past the northwest of Syria.
“They are placed in a position to control Idlib, Aleppo… I think their hands are full to manage the current area. I don’t expect them to go beyond North Western Syria yet,” he said.
Aleppo resident Sarmad, 51, told AFP he heard “the sounds of missiles and gunfire all day and night”.
“We are afraid that war will break out and we will be forced out of our homes again,” he said.
Syria’s civil war began when President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were crushed in 2011 by pro-democracy protests.
Over the years, the conflict has become a draw for a complex war with foreign countries, including al-Assad’s allies Russia, Iran and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “stressed Iran’s continued support for the Syrian government, nation and army in the fight against terrorism,” while speaking with his Syrian counterpart Bassam al-Sabbagh, according to a statement on Friday.
“The Iranians are frustrated. You know what this great project was, which was presented by Suleimani…you know this field of resistance, this desire to establish a sect called Shia, now it has disappeared in the last year…so in Tehran there is a lot of concern for the development of the country,” commented Clark.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the situation in Aleppo as a “violation of Syrian sovereignty.”
He expressed his support for “the Syrian government to quickly restore peace in the region and restore constitutional order”.
Asked about unconfirmed Russian phone reports that al-Assad had flown into Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Peskov said he had “nothing to say” on the matter.
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