Published28. November 2024, 9:57 p.m.
Syria: Two hundred dead in a jihadist offensive against the regime
It is a group dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda which launched the attack in north-west Syria against the regime of Bashar al-Assad supported by Iran and Russia.
Fighters from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group in Syria.
AFP
Jihadists and their allies, who are leading a large offensive in north-west Syria against regime forces, cut off a vital road on Thursday, said an NGO which reported nearly 200 deaths in the violence.
14,000 people displaced
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), at least 19 civilians were among the victims killed Thursday in strikes by the Russian air force, an ally of the Syrian regime. These are the most violent clashes since 2020 in northwest Syria, where the province of Aleppo, largely in the hands of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, borders the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold of Idlib. .
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that “more than 14,000 people – almost half of whom are children – have been displaced” due to the violence. The Syrian Defense Ministry said it was facing a “vast attack” from “terrorist organizations” in the Aleppo region.
The offensive was launched on Wednesday by the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (editor’s note: HTS, dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda), at the helm in Idlib, with formations allied to them, including some close to Turkey. An AFP correspondent reported violent clashes east of the city of Idlib, which were accompanied by airstrikes by the Syrian army.
Iran, unconditional support of Bashar al-Assad
The fighting, which sometimes takes place less than 10km from the government-held metropolis of Aleppo, has left nearly 200 dead since Wednesday, according to the OSDH. There are 182 fighters, including 102 jihadists, 61 members of the regime forces and their allies, and 20 civilians, according to the NGO based in the United Kingdom and with a vast network of sources in Syria.
A general of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, was killed in the fighting on Thursday, an Iranian news agency reported. Iran is an unwavering ally of Syria, a country in which Tehran is involved militarily by sending advisers, at the request of local authorities, to support President el-Assad during the Syrian civil war.
The spokesperson for Iranian diplomacy, Esmaïl Baghaï, estimated Thursday that the current offensive was “part of a diabolical plan of the terrorist regime (editor’s note: Israel) and the United States”, and called for “firm action and coordinated to prevent the spread of terrorism in the region.
Russian airstrikes
In addition to rocket fire and “intense artillery fire”, the OSDH also indicated that “the Russian air force”, allied with the regime, “had intensified its air strikes”, killing 19 civilians on Thursday.
Analyst Nick Heras, of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, believes that the rebels “tried to anticipate the possibility of a Syrian military campaign in the Aleppo region, which was being prepared by airstrikes by the Russian and Syrian governments “.
The Syrian regime has regained control of a large part of the country with the support of its Russian and Iranian allies since the outbreak of the conflict in 2011 which has left more than half a million dead and displaced millions of people.
