The Syrian army sent reinforcements to the northwest and launched airstrikes on Sunday, December 1, in an attempt to stop rebels who have taken the country's largest city, Aleppo, and are now targeting Hama, a strategic point on their way to Damascus. Iran has pledged to help counter the offensive, which has so far left more than 400 dead, according to an NGO.
The Syrian army sent reinforcements and attacked the city of Idlib on Sunday, in an attempt to prevent the insurgents from advancing further after seizing Aleppo and surrounding strategic locations in an adjacent province in a surprise offensive.
The insurgents led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (Levant Liberation Organization) took most of Aleppo on Saturday and claimed to have entered the city of Hama. But there is no independent confirmation of this.
Hama, located about 100 kilometers south of Aleppo, is the site that the coalition of jihadists and rebels have set as a new target for their lightning offensive in northwestern Syria. And for analysts, its eventual capture by the rebels will be a "trial by fire" for the Syrian government.
"The trial by fire is Hama because, while Aleppo was a little separated from the areas of control of the regime, Hama is surrounded by areas that the regime controls, and it is where it has some kind of popular support. If Hama falls, like Aleppo, we would be talking about the possibility of a fall of the regime," analyst and political scientist Farid Kahhat told France 24.
The rapid and surprising offensive has been a major blow to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and raises questions about the preparation of his troops. It also comes at a time when President Bashar Al-Assad's allies - Iran and the groups it supports and Russia - are preoccupied with their own conflicts.
The death toll from the clashes has now exceeded 400 since the rebels launched their offensive against Assad on November 27, according to data from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based NGO.
Iran reaffirms its support for Al-Assad
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Damascus, the Syrian capital, late on Sunday.
Araghchi told reporters that Tehran will support the Syrian government and army. Arab leaders, including King Abdullah II of Jordan and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, expressed solidarity with Damascus in separate calls to Assad.
Turkey, a major backer of the rebel groups, said its diplomatic efforts had failed to stop Syrian government attacks on opposition-held areas in recent weeks.
Turkish security officials said a limited rebel offensive had been planned to stop government attacks and allow civilians to return, but the offensive widened as Syrian government forces began to withdraw from their positions.
The insurgency, led by the Salafi jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and including Turkish-backed fighters, launched its offensive on Wednesday with a two-pronged attack on Aleppo and the Idlib area, before advancing into Hama province. In Aleppo province, they seized a strategic town on the highway linking Aleppo to Damascus and the coast.
Rebel commander Colonel Hassan Abdulghani said that despite the government counteroffensive, his fighters were making progress in Aleppo. He said they had taken control of Sheikh Najjar, also known as Aleppo Industrial City, the military academy and the field artillery school.
The rebel added that 65 Syrian soldiers were taken prisoner in eastern Aleppo.
Elsewhere, he said rebels had advanced in the Idlib countryside, bringing the entire province under their control.
The UN special envoy for Syria says the rebels' shock push poses a risk to regional security and called for a resumption of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
"I have repeatedly warned of the risks of escalation in Syria, of the dangers of mere conflict management rather than its resolution," Geir Pedersen said in a statement. He added that the reality is that no Syrian party or grouping of actors can resolve the conflict by military means.
Bashar Al-Assad's response
According to Syria's state news agency SANA and a war monitor, the army pushed back insurgents overnight in the countryside of northern Hama province.
Syrian state media said government resupply included heavy equipment and rocket launchers, while Syrian and Russian airstrikes targeted weapons depots and insurgent strongholds.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government reinforcements had created a “strong defensive line” in the northern Hama countryside. Syrian state television said government forces had killed nearly 1,000 insurgents in the past three days, without providing evidence or details.
However, government airstrikes in Idlib on Sunday killed at least three civilians, including two children, and wounded 11 others, said the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, which operates in opposition-held areas. Among the targets was the Aleppo University Hospital in the city centre, although it was not known whether there were any casualties.
The insurgents have vowed to advance on Damascus, but life in the Syrian capital has so far continued as normal, with no signs of panic.
In his first public comments since the start of the offensive, carried by the state news agency on Saturday evening, Assad said Syria would continue to “defend its stability and territorial integrity against terrorists and their supporters.”
The Syrian president added that he is capable of defeating them no matter how much their attacks intensify.
The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s government escalated into all-out war.
After rebels appeared to be losing control of the country, the battle for Aleppo entrenched Assad in strategic areas of Syria, while opposition factions and their foreign backers controlled areas on the outskirts.
Have the Kurds entered the scene?
Turkish security sources leaked to several media outlets in their country the existence of fighting between Kurdish-Syrian militias fighting against the Islamists in a tenuous alliance with Damascus in areas north of Aleppo, after the Al-Assad government began "to transfer territories to them."
According to leaks from Turkey, a country that is fighting these groups that it describes as terrorists, numerous Kurds have crossed to the east of the Euphrates River (border of the area dominated by the Kurds in the Arab country) and "have begun to deploy heavy weapons belonging to the organization."
These fights, according to the Turkish source, have prevented the Kurds from making a corridor from the strategic city of Tel Rifaat to their areas in northeastern Syria.
In this context, the Islamist forces offered the Syrian Kurds who still remain in some neighborhoods of Aleppo the opportunity to leave with "their weapons" towards the northeast of Syria, since their fight is against "the criminal regime of Al-Assad" and the Iranian militias.
For their part, the Kurds, grouped under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said today that they are facing an offensive in the area for which they blamed Turkey, whose objective is to "occupy all Syrian territory," according to a statement.
The Kurdish groups are supported by the US in their fight against the remnants of the jihadist group Islamic State that still exist in the area.
With AP, EFE and local media
