Extremist rebel offensive advances towards Syria's Aleppo in worst fighting for years

Syrian and Russian troops reportedly hit back with air strikes

Smoke rises during clashes between fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian army, in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib in Syria's northern province of Aleppo. AFP

Militant rebels in Syria overran an army base and took over at least 13 villages, in one of the biggest flare ups in violence in years in the north-east of the country.

The rebels launched a surprise attack on the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo, causing clashes in which 130 combatants and civilians were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rapidly advancing troops of extremist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham launched the offensive “Deterring the Aggression,” late on Wednesday, moving towards Aleppo city from Idlib, home to about two million people displaced from fighting since 2011.

Idlib has been under the control of the group since 2019 when it pushed out other rebel factions in a series of clashes. According to Charles Lister, a US-based analyst tracking the violence in Syria, the rebel offensive is now only six kilometres away from Aleppo, a city that suffered widespread destruction between 2012 and 2016.

HTS was formerly aligned to Al Qaeda, but said it had split from the terror organisation in 2016, when the force was known as Jabhat Al Nusra. It comprises a number of other militant rebel factions but in recent years has tried to distance itself from extremist ideology. This effort, according to extremism expert Mackenzie Holtz, is more of a rebrand than a “genuine change in ideology”.

Russian and Syrian aircraft reportedly launched heavy air strikes on the advancing militias. According to Reuters, fighters from the Iran-backed Hezbollah had been present in some of the contested areas in the rebel offensive.

HTS has been accused of extremely violent crackdowns on protesters in areas under its control and killing other opposition members opposed to its authoritarian leanings. It said it was launching the offensive in response to Russian and Syrian attacks on civilian areas in Idlib. In recent months, people in Idlib have reported drone attacks on civilians using quadcopter drones rigged with bombs and Syrian troops regularly shell the area.

In an echo of the early years of the Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 following a violent government crackdown on a civilian protest movement, militants could be seen seizing stockpiles of anti-tank missiles known as Kornets from a Syrian base. The National was unable to verify the videos, published on opposition accounts.

The weapons, which are lethal against tanks and infantry positions, were critical for the massive advances of rebel groups early in the war, until Russia intervened in 2015 with significant air power, devastating towns and villages in rebel hands and pushing them back into Idlib.

Several other parts of northern Syria remain outside regime control, including formerly Kurdish-majority areas on the Turkish border, now occupied by the Syrian National Army, a force mainly composed of former Syrian rebels backed and armed by Turkey. In the east of the country, areas of land along the Iraqi border and Euphrates river are controlled by US-backed, mainly Kurdish militias in the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition.