Displaced Syrian Kurds drive vehicles loaded with goods on the Aleppo-Raqqa highway as they flee areas on the outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo that were previously controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), after they were seized by Islamist rebels on Dec. 2, 2024. (Credit: Rami Al Sayyed/AFP)
Syrian rebels launched an offensive in northern Syria, and have advanced toward Hama on Tuesday. Regime forces, backed by Russia, have been fighting with the rebels fiercely for control of the key city. Large-scale hostilities have widely resumed in Syria, after more than a decade of Civil War. International calls for de-escalation are hence multiplying.
The Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and other rebel factions launched a huge offensive in northwest Syria on Nov. 27, seizing dozens of localities and much of Aleppo — the country's second-largest city.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that “violent clashes had erupted in the northern Hama countryside, while Russian and Syrian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on rebel positions.”
Anti-regime groups have taken control of several localities in the region, according to the SOHR. A photographer from Agence France-Press (AFP) saw dozens of abandoned Syrian army tanks and vehicles on the road leading to Hama on Tuesday morning. The army had earlier announced that it had sent reinforcements to the region to slow the rebels' progress.
Citizens escape
“We want to advance on Hama after combing” towns that have been captured, a rebel fighter who identified himself as Abu al-Huda al-Sourani told AFP. On Monday, HTS shelled the city with rocket launchers, killing six civilians.
The fighting and airstrikes witnessed in the last few days have been the first of their kind since 2020, killing 514 people since Nov. 27, including 92 civilians, according to the SOHR.
More than 48,500 people have been displaced from the Idlib and northern Aleppo provinces since Saturday. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday reported that more than half of them were children, including thousands of Syrian Kurds.
AFP images showed cars, vans and motorbikes overloaded with mattresses and blankets, forming a long line on the Aleppo-Raqqa highway, aiming to further reach eastern areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
For the first time since the Syrian war began in 2011, the regime lost complete control of Aleppo. Rebel factions — some of which are backed by Ankara — seized the country's second-largest city, barring Kurdish-inhabited neighborhoods.
Airstrikes ‘terror’
AFP images showed rescue workers searching the rubble of buildings razed by Syrian and Russian air raids, which also targeted a camp for displaced people in the town of Haranabouch. “I can't describe ... the terror we felt,” Hussein Ahmar Khader, a teacher, said on Monday.
AFPTV footage showed rebels in military fatigues patrolling Aleppo's streets, reaching its historic citadel and gaining a foothold in its international airport.
Residents were queuing to receive bread distributed by an organization. “We are in limbo, we don't know what will happen,” an Aleppo resident anonymously told AFP over the phone on Monday. “No one was bothered, but some militants told the girls to wear veils,” he said
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities,” according to his spokesman. The United States — at the head of an international anti-jihadist coalition in Syria — urged “all countries” to work toward "de-escalating" the situation in Syria, as did the European Union, which “condemned” Russian strikes “on densely populated areas.”
'Redrawing the regional map'
In a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Massoud Pezeshkian, Assad said that “the terrorist escalation” was aimed at “dividing the region, fragmenting the countries, and redrawing the map in line with the objectives of the United States and the West.”
The Kremlin indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pezeshkian had affirmed their “unconditional” support to Assad and called for coordination with Turkey, which supported rebel groups. After the Civil War, Syria has been divided into several zones of influence, where warring factions are supported by different foreign powers.
Thanks to military support from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, the Assad regime succeeded in retaking control of much of the territory in 2015, and all of Aleppo in 2016.
The conflict, which began with the brutal repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, has killed about half a million people. Before rebels launched their offensive, northwestern Syria was under a precarious calm, by virtue of a cease-fire established in 2020, sponsored by Ankara and Moscow.
This article was originally published in French in L’Orient-Le Jour.