HTS fighters standing for prayer on the first day of Eid back in JuneOmar Haj Kadour, Agence France-Presse
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The sounds of gunfire and airstrikes echo across the Syrian countryside as the first major offensive in four years is underway. A coalition of rebel forces, primarily lead by the Idlib based Hay’at Tahir al-Sham, has launched an operation towards the city of Aleppo. In around 10 hours on November 27th, the group had expanded across a vast swath of countryside. As of November 28th, HTS and its allies have reached within six miles of the city’s outskirts as the Syrian Arab Army has failed to halt the offensive.
This comes after four years of mostly dormancy in Syria’s long running civil war, where frontlines have remained largely stagnant since the defeat of the ISIS caliphate. The Idlib Governorate, situated in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border, has been one of the few locations in the country that President Bashar al-Assad has been unable to reassert control over.
Telegram channels associated with HTS and its allies claimed the fighters had taken over a SAA military base called Base 46, as well as capture dozens of bases of equipment including main battle tanks. Pictures of rebel fighters standing by captured Syrian equipment have emerged online since the offensive began. Iranian state media has claimed that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer, Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi, was killed while acting as an advisor to pro-Regime forces.
Even further, rebel forces claimed to have ambushed and killed several members of a Russian Special Forces unit outside of Aleppo, but this cannot be verified.
Mixed reports have emerged that various groups aligned with Turkey’s proxy force, the Syrian National Army, had also taken part in the offensive against pro-Damascus forces, but overall the SNA seems to have largely stayed out of the fighting, as has the Turkish Armed Forces.
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