Syrian groups have launched an offensive in Aleppo

In Syria, armed groups have launched an offensive against government forces in rural areas in the west of Aleppo province. This is reported by the American television channel CNN, the Turkish Anadolu agency, the Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Center (SOHR), based in London, the London pan-Arab edition of The New Arab.

The terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* (HTS, banned in the Russia), the militants took control of the village of Kafer Besme, as well as the heights of Akyl, El-Ragib, Kuptan and Dabbabat, Anadolu writes.

In a statement by the groups, which CNN refers to, it is said that they captured 13 villages, including the strategically important cities of Urm-as-Sugra and Anjara, as well as the largest base of the Syrian army in this area — Base 46. The command of the Syrian groups told the TV channel that after "fierce battles with Assad's troops and Iranian militias" The city of Urm-el-Kubra, located about 20 km from Aleppo, is occupied.

Various opposition forces are participating in the offensive, CNN writes — from Islamist groups to the moderate "Free Syrian Army", which was supported by the United States and Turkey.

The Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria did not report on the hostilities in a briefing for November 27, indicating that it continues to "monitor compliance with the cessation of hostilities between the warring parties."

The escalation was the first serious clash between the rebels and the army since March 2022, when the parties agreed to a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey, CNN notes.

The civil war in Syria began in 2011 after anti-government protests, participants demanded reforms, demonstrations escalated into an armed conflict. Following the opposition, Islamists entered the civil war. For ten years by 2021, 306.8 thousand civilians were killed directly from the fighting — 1.5% of the entire population of Syria by the beginning of the war, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office. The figures published by the UN do not include soldiers and rebels killed during the conflict; their number is believed to be in the tens of thousands.

Aleppo is located in the north-west of Syria, it is one of the largest cities in Syria — the second largest after Damascus, 2.4 million people lived there before the start of the war, and later by 2017 less than 1 million people remained there.

The northwestern part of Syria is the last region in the republic under the control of anti-government rebels, dominated by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham*, explains The New Arab.

Russia launched an operation in Syria at the end of August 2015 at the request of the Syrian government of that country. The city of Aleppo was liberated from militants at the end of 2016 with the support of the Russian military, RBC said.

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation