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Syrian rebels are attacking Kurdish-held areas in the country’s north-west as the Islamists’ shock offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime threatens to draw in other forces in the deeply fractured nation.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said its fighters were facing intense attacks on multiple fronts near the strategically important town of Tel Rifaat, north-west of Aleppo — Syria’s second-largest city that was captured by rebels last week.
The clashes between Turkish-backed rebels and the US-backed SDF have underlined the risk of the conflict spreading to other parts of Syria, home to myriad factions supported by foreign powers.
Turkey has for years deployed troops in northern Syria to support rebel groups as part of Ankara’s attempts to push back Kurdish militants it considers an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a separatist group that has long fought the Turkish state.
Turkey’s campaign against the SDF has been a point of friction with the US, which has supported the Kurdish-led forces in the fight against Isis and has about 900 troops deployed in Syria.
Rebels appeared to take control of Tel Rifaat, according to local journalists on Monday and the pro-regime Al Mayadeen TV. Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Sunday called on SDF forces to leave the area, adding that it would offer safe passage for Aleppo’s Kurds to head to the Kurdish-controlled north-east.
Thousands of rebels led by HTS entered Aleppo, which has a population of 2mn, on Friday. They raised their flag over the city’s citadel, posed for photographs at its airport and patrolled the streets of a city gripped by fear that it could descend into the chaos of civil war once again.
The rebels, who launched their assault on Wednesday, have advanced in multiple directions from their stronghold in Idlib province in north-western Syria, although their progress seemed to have slowed by Sunday.
Despite being at odds politically with the Assad regime, the Kurdish-led breakaway government that controls Syria’s north-east has publicly opposed the insurgency, accusing Turkey of taking advantage of the offensive to try to displace the Kurds through the rebel groups’ offensive.
Analysts say HTS is co-ordinating with Turkish-backed factions known as the Syrian National Army, but the latter forces have not yet fully deployed on the offensive.
On Sunday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that while there were concerns about HTS’s “designs and objectives”, Washington would not “cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran and Hizbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure”.
Turkey, Russia and Iran have held regular talks on Syria’s future, with Turkey supporting the opposition while Russia and Iran back Assad.
On Monday Russia and Iran’s presidents, Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian, vowed “unconditional” backing for Assad.
Iran, who has helped Assad retain his hold on power since the civil war erupted in 2011, also pledged “all-out support” during a visit to Damascus by the country’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday.
Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan, who met Araghchi in Ankara on Monday, said all relevant parties should push for renewed talks between Damascus and the opposition.
“The reason for the latest developments in [northern] Syria is that problems in the past 13 years were not solved,” Fidan said.
The battering Iran-backed groups, including Hizbollah, have taken over the past year by the Israeli military in Syria and Lebanon may have created the opportunity for the rebel offensive.
HTS’s ability to move beyond Idlib is a major embarrassment for Assad, underscoring the regime’s weakness. The offensive comes at a time when the Syrian president’s allies are preoccupied with their own conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, at least 25 people have been killed in opposition-held Idlib province and newly captured Aleppo, as Russian and Syrian warplanes intensified air raids in a bid to stem the rebels’ advance, war monitors and emergency responders who operate in opposition-held areas said on Sunday. Assad’s forces continued to strike rebel-held positions in Aleppo’s countryside, the government said on Monday.
Syria’s army claimed to have recaptured several towns the rebels had overrun in recent days, fortifying their defensive lines in northern Hama province, which borders Aleppo.
Shafiq Abu Talal, a former teacher from Damascus who fled to Idlib during the war, said the city was being bombarded so intensely that he’d evacuated his family on Monday to a nearby town.
“There were about 15 air strikes on the heart of Idlib city last night, and they’re hitting civilian targets, like the market,” he said. “The great fear on everyone’s mind now is the regime’s revenge.”
Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Cartography by Steven Bernard and video editing by Jamie Han
