Jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies reached Syria's second city of Aleppo Friday, as they pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
The fighting is some of the deadliest in years, with 255 people killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the dead have been combatants but the toll also includes 24 civilians, most killed in Russian air strikes.
The offensive began on Wednesday, the same day that a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
By Friday, the jihadists and their allies had wrested control of more than 50 towns and villages in the north, according to the Britain-based Observatory, in the government's biggest loss of territory in years.
They then entered western districts of Aleppo, a city of some two million people that was Syria's pre-war manufacturing hub.
"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions... were able to enter the outskirts of the Al-Hamdaniya and New Aleppo neighbourhoods... after carrying out twin suicide attacks with two booby-trapped cars," the war monitor said.
HTS, a jihadist alliance led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, shelled a student residence in the city, killing four civilians, state media reported.
Clashes between military factions and regime forces are moving towards Aleppo University, according to Syrian television.
Other sources report that jihadists have stormed Aleppo's military and artillery schools.
Syrian and Russian warplanes launched intense air strikes on the rebel enclave around Idlib, where the jihadists are based, carrying out 23 raids, according to the Observatory.
Army reinforcements have arrived in Aleppo, a Syrian security official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
An army statement said troops had repelled the assault on the city and retaken some positions.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said "more than 14,000 people –- nearly half are children -- have been displaced" by the violence.
Turkey condemns the clashes and calls for “an end to attacks” on the rebel stronghold of Idleb (ministry).
International players
At a press conference earlier this week, Mohamed Bashir of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) said: "This operation aims to repel the sources of fire of the criminal enemy from the frontlines."
HTS, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, controls swathes of the northwest Idlib region as well as small parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire, repeatedly violated but which had largely been holding, brokered by Turkey and Russia after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020.
An AFP correspondent based in rebel-held areas said there were intense exchanges of fire in an area just seven kilometres (four miles) from the city of Aleppo.
HTS has close ties with Turkish-backed factions, and analyst Nick Heras of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy said the fighters were "trying to preempt the possibility of a Syrian military campaign in the region of Aleppo".
According to Heras, the Syrian government and its key backer Russia had been preparing for such a campaign.
Russia intervened in Syria's civil war in 2015, turning the momentum of the conflict in favour of the president, whose forces at the time had lost control of most of country.
Turkey, Heras said, may be "sending a message to both Damascus and Moscow to back down from their military efforts in northwest Syria".
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