Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country’s conflict began more than a decade ago, a war monitor said Sunday, after a surprise advance by rebels.
An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance has pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after two months of all-out war.
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The Syrian army – supported by Russian air power – had recaptured in 2016 rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a city dominated by its landmark citadel.
The jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebel factions “control Aleppo city, except the neighbourhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
For the first time since the conflict started, “Aleppo city is out of control of Syrian regime forces,” Abdel Rahman said.
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