By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Syrian opposition groups have breached Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, after blowing up two car bombs and fighting with government forces on Friday in clashes that have killed some 200 people, a Syria war monitor and witnesses say.
Insurgents have been approaching Aleppo city for days and seized several towns and villages along the way.
The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, who had backed Syrian government forces since 2015, were preoccupied with their battles at home.
The latest fighting marked the first time in years that rebel forces in north-western Syria captured territory from President Bashar al-Assad’s military.
It came shortly after Israel and Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, agreed on a ceasefire deal that involved withdrawing from territory in southern Lebanon.
Additionally, Russia’s military, which also supports Syria’s government, faces challenges as well because of Moscow’s focus on the war in Ukraine.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the insurgents blew up two car bombs at the city’s western edge on Friday.
INSURGENT COMMANDER
An insurgent commander urged residents through social media to cooperate with the advancing forces.
The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions said they had seized control of several towns and villages in Aleppo and Idlib provinces since Wednesday.
The Syrian military said its forces were confronting a “large-scale” attack by “terrorists” and inflicting heavy losses on them.
More than 180 combatants on both sides had been killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Additionally, at least 19 civilians had also been killed in Syrian and Russian air strikes on opposition-held areas, it added.
More than half a million people have been killed in the civil war that erupted after the government cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011, according to official estimates.
Among those fleeing are also thousands of Christians, Worthy News established.
REMAINING STRONGHOLD
Idlib, where the current fighting occurs, is the last remaining opposition stronghold and is home to more than 4 million people. Many of these residents have been displaced during the armed conflict and are living in dire conditions, according to aid workers.
HTS mainly controls the enclave, but Turkish-backed rebel factions operating under the banner of the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Turkish forces are also based there.
In 2020, Turkey and Russia – a staunch ally of Assad – brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib.
That led to an extended lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, air strikes, and shelling continued. Turkish media said the insurgents now control about 70 locations in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
Syria’s state media reported earlier Friday that “projectiles” from insurgents landed in the student accommodations at Aleppo’s university in the city center, killing four people, including two students.
The report said that public transportation to the city had also been diverted from the main highway linking Aleppo to Damascus to avoid clashes. Fighters reportedly also advanced on the town of Saragab, in northwestern Idlib province, a strategic area that would secure supply lines to Aleppo.
This week’s advances were one of the largest by opposition factions and amounted to the most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Israel expanded its military campaign against Hezbollah on Monday, striking more than 70 targets across Lebanon as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to increase pressure on the Iranian-backed terror group following a sharp rise in drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel.
A federal appeals court is weighing whether Kansas City can use its public accommodation ordinance to require Christian counselors to counsel gay married couples despite the counselors’ biblical convictions on marriage and sexuality.
Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians gathered in the Netherlands for one of Europe’s largest multi-day Christian events, with organizers and participants expressing hopes for spiritual revival in the nation and across Europe.
President Donald Trump pushed back Monday against sharp criticism from Republicans and former administration officials over a potential U.S.-Iran agreement, insisting that any final accord must prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon or it will not be signed.
President Donald Trump said Monday that countries involved in negotiations over Iran should be required to join the Abraham Accords, signaling that the White House is seeking to turn a possible Iran agreement into a wider regional realignment that includes normalization with Israel.
Tensions remained high in Serbia’s capital Belgrade on Sunday after at least tens of thousands of people demanded elections and rallied against what they view as the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Aleksandar Vučić, with violence erupting after the protest and more than 20 people arrested.
Investigations were ongoing Sunday into the killing of three senior Kuki-Thadou Christian church leaders by unidentified gunmen in India’s northeastern Manipur State, Christian investigators told Worthy News.