Middle East conflict: Syria’s military counterattacks after rebels seize Aleppo

The Syrian Civil Defense, known commonly as the “White Helmets,” shared a series of images today showing the wreckage of health care facilities hit in Idlib.

In a post on X, the group blamed Russian airstrikes for the destruction. NBC News is unable to verify the source of the strikes.

“Targeting hospitals and healthcare facilities protected under international humanitarian law is a war crime and a severe violation aimed at denying civilians access to medical care,” the group said.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is “alarmed” at the resurgence of violence in northwest Syria in the last week, his spokesperson said.

Stéphane Dujarric said at his briefing today that Guterres is calling for all of the parties in the Syrian conflict to return to the political diplomacy outlined in the 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution that created a peace process for the groups.

“Syrians have endured the conflict for nearly 14 years,” Dujarric said. “They deserve a political horizon that will deliver a peaceful future — not more bloodshed.”

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a global relief organization, said one of its hospitals in Idlib was hit by an airstrike today, causing structural damage.

The group said in a statement that an airstrike hit the entrance of its maternity hospital and the National Hospital in the city but that no casualties among staff members or patients were reported. Physicians and patients had been moved into the facilities’ basement last week in anticipation of the violence.

“SAMS has suspended all but essential care at nine of its medical facilities to ensure safety of its staff and patients, which is depriving thousands of healthcare,” the statement said.

Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh, the president of SAMS, urged a restoration of “common decency” to prioritize humanitarian relief and said hospitals are not targets in war.

The entrance to the Aleppo University Hospital was hit yesterday, killing 12 civilians, the Syrian Civil Defense said.

An estimated 514 people have been killed since last week in the violence in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in an update today.

The watchdog organization is based in London and relies on a network of on-the-ground sources for its information. A breakdown of the death toll includes 217 people from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the militant group fighting the Syrian government, 154 people from regime forces and allied militias and 51 members of another opposition group.

At least 92 civilians, including one child, have also been killed, the group said.

In the messy patchwork of conflicts raging across the Middle East, one country has been absent from the spotlight: Syria.

A civil war that dominated international headlines for more than a decade has now been reignited after a coalition of Syrian rebels launched a lightning offensive last week, seizing Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, from Assad’s regime.

The rebels took only hours to recapture territory that Assad’s forces had spent years reclaiming. Fighter jets from Syria and its ally Russia soon began bombing the area — killing hundreds of the rebels but civilians, too, according to a leading monitoring group.

“This is a very unstable situation with a huge amount of flux,” said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

Read the full story here.

Turkey has long warned about reignited conflict without proper resolution in Syria, and the latest events in Aleppo have proved the country’s “rightness,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today.

“It is our greatest wish that the territorial integrity and national unity of Syria will be protected, and that the instability that has been going on for 13 years will end by consensus in line with the legitimate demands of the Syrian people,” Erdoğan said on X.

Turkey previously supported rebel opposition against Assad’s regime and was part of the negotiations that brokered a ceasefire in 2020. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan blamed the recent flare-up on the Syrian government’s refusal to enter a dialogue with the opposition, which Turkey supports.

“Recent developments show once again that Damascus must reconcile with its own people and the legitimate opposition,” Fidan said at a news conference today. “Turkey is ready to make all the necessary contribution toward this.”

Russian President Vladmir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoked by phone today to discuss the ongoing situation in Syria.

According to a readout from the Kremlin, the two men expressed their “unconditional support” for the “legitimate” Syrian authorities. Putin has spent years publicly backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose father was president before him.

The Iranian state news agency FARSNA reported that Pezeshkian blamed the U.S. and Israel for the recent events. He also reportedly told Putin that Iran is ready “to cooperate with Russia in this regard.”

Putin agreed, emphasizing that “the real decision-makers” are those who back the Syrian rebels, according to FARSNA.

The latest developments in Syria “pose severe risks to civilians and have serious implications for regional and international peace and security,” the United Nations’ special envoy to the country said today.

“As an immediate priority, I strongly emphasize the urgent need for all to uphold their obligations under international law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. This is a clear message to all parties engaged in hostilities of any kind,” Geir O. Pedersen said in a statement.

“The Syrian parties and key international stakeholders need to be seriously engaged in meaningful and substantive negotiations to find a way out of the conflict. Without this, Syria is in danger of further division, deterioration, and destruction,” he added.

A former Israeli defense minister has accused his country of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, in rare criticism from Israel’s own security community about military operations in the Palestinian enclave.

Moshe Yaalon said in an interview with the Reshet Bet radio station yesterday that the government was putting the lives of Israel Defense Forces soldiers in danger and exposing them to lawsuits at the International Criminal Court.

“I speak on behalf of commanders who serve in northern Gaza,” he said. “War crimes are being committed here.”

In a separate interview with Democrat TV on Saturday, he said the government was seeking “to conquer, to annex, to carry out ethnic cleansing.”

Read the full story here.

Russian airstrikes have targeted a group of health centers and hospitals in the rebel-held city of Idlib in northwest Syria, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.

Two airstrikes struck a cluster of facilities including Idlib University Hospital, Ibn Sina Hospital, National Hospital, and the Health Directorate in Idlib city, according to the U.K.-based war monitoring group.

It added that Russian and Syrian warplanes had “significantly escalated” attacks on the cities of Aleppo and Idlib, “resulting in civilian casualties.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his “heartfelt condolences to the parents and family” of Omer Neutra, a U.S.-Israeli soldier who was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

“We share in the family’s heavy grief,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will continue to act resolutely and tirelessly until we return all of our captives — the living and the dead,” he added.

Initially believed to have been captured alive, Omer was later confirmed to have been killed that day, with his body taken into the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military.

According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group for captives and their families, Omer’s body remains in Hamas’ custody.

Syrian forces are advancing in the countryside near Aleppo, Hama, and Idlib as it seeks to secure territory claimed by rebel forces, the nation’s army said today.

The General Command of the Army and Armed Force said in a statement that its armed forces had begun operations to “encircle the terrorists and expel them from the areas they entered.”

Supported by Russian forces, it said “concentrated air, missile, and artillery strikes” had destroyed five rebel command centers and seven ammunition depots in the area.

It also dismissed reports of rebel control in certain areas as false propaganda aimed at boosting morale among retreating fighters.

Eyewitness video released Sunday showed explosions striking a busy road in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Filmed near the Aleppo University Hospital, people can be seen running across a street moments before the blasts.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has reaffirmed his country’s unwavering support for Syria during a phone call with the country’s President Bashar al-Assad, a statement from Assad’s office said on Telegram today.

It said the two leaders discussed “regional stability and the fight against terrorism,” and that Assad blamed the recent escalation of terrorism on “Western ambitions to divide the region.”

Pezeshkian rejected “any attempts to undermine Syria’s unity and stability,” the statement said, warning that such actions jeopardize the entire region.

Russia will “continue to support” Syria’s President Bashar Assad as his forces battle rebels in and around the northern city of Aleppo, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters today.

Russia is analyzing the situation in Syria and “what is needed to stabilize the situation will be worked out,” Peskov said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko was also quoted by Russian state media as saying that he said he “cannot rule out” the possibility of a meeting with Turkey and Iran to discuss a settlement in Syria.

Around 40 miles south of Aleppo in the Syrian city of Idlib, civil defense teams raced to rescue survivors of strikes by Syrian government forces today.

A soldier was “moderately injured” when an Israeli drone struck a bulldozer carrying out “fortification work” at a military base, Lebanon’s army said on X today.

The work was being carried out in the Hermel region near the country’s border with Syria, the post said. It “resulted in one soldier being moderately injured,” the post said.

An Israeli American soldier who was thought to have been captured alive by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack was killed that day and his body taken into the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military said today.

Capt. Omer Neutra served as a tank platoon commander after emigrating to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group for those held captive and their families said Omer’s body is still being held captive by Hamas.

Paying tribute to the 21-year-old from New York on X, Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, said his “life story and dedication represent the best and strongest we have built as a nation.”

Iraq’s border with Syria is “fully secured,” the country’s interior ministry said today, as fears mount that rebel push in northern Syria could spread across the region. 

“Breaching the border is absolutely impossible,” spokesperson Brig. Mukdad Meiri told a news conference. He added that police officers had been sent to the border to support border forces and the military.

At least 446 people including civilians and military personnel have been killed since Syrian rebels launched their shock offensive last week, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group.

The Observatory which relies on a network of on-the-ground information sources, said five children and three women were among the civilians killed by bombardment and airstrikes.

The U.S. and other Western governments said yesterday that they were “closely monitoring developments in Syria and urge de-escalation by all parties and the protection of civilians and infrastructure to prevent further displacement and disruption of humanitarian access.” 

“The current escalation only underscores the urgent need for a Syrian-led political solution to the conflict,” the U.S., French, German and British governments said in a statement.