On 27 November, Jihadists attacked Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city.
Hundreds have been killed and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Aleppo’s two key public hospitals were full of patients. The Jihadist coalition is led by Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), along with the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), the Syrian National Army (SNA), which is loyal to Ankara, and Turkestan and Uyghur rebel groups.
It is the first time in four years that Jihadist forces have broken out of the province of Idlib since the end of the Syrian Civil War, in which 500,000 were killed and 6 million made refugees.
The offensive has unified the various extremist factions in Syria’s north west, which plan to advance on Damascus, the capital, after the fall of Aleppo.
HTS wants to establish fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria. It is a Sunni Islamist militant and political group, originally known as Jabhat al-Nusra, a former affiliate of Al Qaeda.
ISIS black flags have been seen amongst the jihadists. HTS has released political prisoners from Aleppo and kidnapped Kurdish girls.
Turkey, a major backer of Syrian opposition groups, has denied any involvement in the offensive.
President Bashar Al-Assad’s Syrian forces are pushing back against the Islamists, with Assad asking Russia and Iran for assistance.
Assad said Syria will continue to “defend its stability and territorial integrity against terrorists and their supporters.”
Most likely Syria will defeat the rebels no matter how intensive their attacks are. After an advisor to Syrian forces, Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed, Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran would continue to support Damascus.
Russia’s state news agency Tass says Russian warplanes have killed hundreds of militants in Aleppo, including two senior Jihadist commanders. Russia had been distracted by its conflict in Ukraine and was unprepared for this assault. The Kremlin has since dismissed the commander of Russian forces in Syria, General Sergei Kisel, amid
“significant” losses.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are a US partner consisting of Kurdish fighters known as the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG). They are fighting to defend the Kurds, and Christian groups in the city.
US National Security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union: “We were not surprised that these rebels would try to take advantage of a new situation, in which the Syrian government’s main backers, Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah, were all distracted and weakened by conflicts and events elsewhere.” This has left Syria “in a weaker strategic position.”
Sullivan called it “a complicated situation.”
That’s an understatement.
The sudden uprising has been seen by some as the direct result of Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iranian forces, upsetting the political and military balance in Syria.
Hours before the rebel attack on Aleppo, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press conference: “If Syria helps Hezbollah to rebuild, they will pay direct prices. Not only the convoys will be attacked, but there will be prices to pay in Syria as well.”
Iran has since accused Israel of being behind the Jihadist uprising.
Haidar Mustafa writes in the Cradle that Damascus is supported by the Arab League and several Persian Gulf states. They do not want a return to Jihadist wars that would destabilize Lebanon and Iraq. US and British forces continue to operate in Syria against the Jihadists. The US, Britain, France, and Germany are calling for a de-escalation in the fighting.
By Graham Holton
As of December 7th, there are reports of the fall of Syria’s capital, Damascus.
The Syrian Government has issued the following statement on December 7th, 2024:
The Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic denies all these rumors and points out their blatant goals and confirms that they are not new, but rather those media outlets have previously followed this pattern of attempts to mislead and influence the Syrian state and society throughout the past years of war.
