Terrorists Launch Large Offensive in Syria

A missile fired by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militant group against Syrian government forces position in Idlib Province, Syria, on Aug. 27, 2019. Ibaa News Agency via AP

Terrorists entered Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo on Nov. 29 and clashed with government forces on the city’s western edge, according to a Syria war monitor and fighters.

Residents were fleeing neighborhoods on the city’s edge because of missiles and gunfire, according to witnesses in Aleppo.

Launched from Syria’s neighboring Idlib Province, the offensive is reportedly spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is regarded as a terrorist group by the United States, Russia, and Turkey.

However, several “moderate” anti-Assad groups—also based in Idlib—enjoy the support of Ankara, which severed relations with the Syrian government in 2011.

Damascus and its allies—which, along with Russia, include Iran and Hezbollah—regard all these groups as “terrorists” and have frequently clashed with them in the past.

For the past five years, these groups have been largely confined to Idlib, where a “de-escalation zone” was set up in 2019 based on an agreement between Russia, Turkey, and Iran.

Oleg Ignasyuk, a high-ranking Russian official, said that Syrian troops, working in tandem with Russian military aircraft, had killed more than 400 insurgents who had attacked Syrian army positions in Idlib and Aleppo.

“The Syrian army, backed by Russia’s Aerospace Forces, is engaged in heavy fighting,” Ignasyuk told Russia’s TASS news agency on Nov. 28.

“Terrorist units suffered major troop and equipment losses in the past 24 hours.”

Moscow has urged Damascus to “restore order.”

“We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Nov. 29.

He went on to describe the offensive, which reportedly remains underway, as an “attack on Syrian sovereignty.”

Since 2015, Russia has maintained a sizeable military presence in Syria to support the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from what both countries view as “foreign-backed terrorists.”

According to witnesses cited by Reuters, the main highway linking Aleppo city to Damascus remains closed as a result of the fighting.

In a statement, the Syrian army claimed to have inflicted “heavy losses” on the insurgents with the help of Russia and other “friendly forces”—a reference to Iran and Hezbollah.

Nevertheless, on Nov. 29, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that the insurgents had overrun dozens of villages in Idlib and Aleppo.

According to Anadolu, insurgents have also killed Syrian soldiers—it did not say how many—and captured Syrian military vehicles and equipment.

The Epoch Times could not independently verify the reports.

In a statement carried by Iranian media, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is active in Syria, confirmed that one of its senior military advisers had been killed in the fighting.

According to David Carden, the United Nation’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, dozens of civilians have also been killed.

“We’re deeply alarmed by the situation unfolding in northwest Syria,” Carden told Reuters on Nov. 29.

He added that “relentless attacks” over the past three days had claimed the lives of at least 27 civilians, including children.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry warned against what he called the “reactivation” of “terrorist” groups in Syria.

Quoted by Iran’s IRNA news agency on Nov. 29, he said the offensive constituted a “gross violation” of the 2019 tripartite agreement that established the Idlib deescalation zone.

The past 24 hours have also seen unconfirmed reports in the media that Assad had arrived in Moscow for urgent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked about the reports, Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, declined to comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.