Syrian rebels enter Aleppo three days into surprise offensiveInsurgents had recaptured territory around Syria’s second city with civilians including children killed in fightingIslamist insurgents have entered Syria’s second city of Aleppo in a shock assault, eight years after forces loyal to Damascus seized control of the city.
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) began a major offensive earlier this week from their base in the Idlib countryside, a slim strip of land in Syria’s north-west. It took only three days for the fighting to reach Aleppo, with insurgents capturing territory around the city’s outskirts for the first time in four years as Syrian government forces pummelled rebel-held areas.
Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency reported on Friday afternoon that the insurgents had entered Aleppo, while unverified images and video circulating online showed armoured vehicles and armed uniformed militants on its streets. The Associated Press said residents reported hearing missiles striking its outskirts.
The fighting over the last three days had killed 27 civilians, including eight children, David Carden, the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, told Reuters.
The rebels have rapidly recaptured dozens of towns and villages in the Aleppo countryside, seizing a military base, weaponry and tanks from Syrian government forces, while some Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups based elsewhere in north-west Syria joined the fighting.
The UN said Syrian government forces based in Damascus carried out at least 125 airstrikes and shelled areas across Idlib and western Aleppo controlled by the rebels in response to the offensive, killing at least 12 civilians and wounding 46 others, and displacing 14,000 people.
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