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Syrian Opposition Fighters Sweep into Aleppo, Army Says Dozens of Soldiers Killed

A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)
A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)
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Syrian Opposition Fighters Sweep into Aleppo, Army Says Dozens of Soldiers Killed

A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)
A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)

The Syrian army said on Saturday dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack by opposition fighters who swept into the city of Aleppo in the northwest, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years.

The surprise attack led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has jolted the frontlines of the Syrian civil war that have largely been frozen since 2020, reviving fighting in a corner of the fractured country near the Turkish border. The army said it was preparing a counteroffensive to restore state authority.

Acknowledging the opposition advance, the Syrian army command said the factions had entered large parts of Aleppo, which had been under full state control since government forces backed by Russia and Iran drove opposition factions out eight years ago.

Images from Aleppo showed a group of opposition fighters gathered in the city's Saadallah al-Jabiri Square after entering the city overnight, a billboard of Assad looming behind them.

"I am the son of Aleppo, and was displaced from it eight years ago, in 2016. Thank God we just returned. It is an indescribable feeling," said Ali Jumbaa, a fighter, television footage showed.

The Syrian military command said militants had attacked in large numbers and from multiple directions, prompting "our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defense lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack".

The army said bombardment had stopped the fighters from establishing fixed positions. It promised to "expel them and restore the control of the state ... over the entire city and its countryside".

Two opposition sources said the fighters had also captured the city of Maraat al-Numan in Idlib province, bringing all of that province under their control, in what would be another significant blow to Assad.

The fighting revives the long-simmering Syrian conflict as the wider region is roiled by wars in Gaza and Lebanon, where a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.

The attack was launched from opposition-held areas of northwestern Syria that remain outside Assad's grasp.

Two Syrian military sources said that Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted opposition fighters in an Aleppo suburb on Saturday.

Speaking on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regarded the opposition attack as a violation of Syria's sovereignty. "We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible," he said.

The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue service operating in opposition-held parts of Syria, said in a post on X that Syrian government and Russian aircraft carried out airstrikes on residential neighborhoods, a gas station and a school in opposition-held Idlib, killing four civilians and wounding six others.

The two Syrian military sources said Russia has promised Damascus extra military aid that would start arriving in the next 72 hours. Authorities closed Aleppo airport and roads to the city, the two military sources and a third army source said.

The Syrian army has been told to follow "safe withdrawal" orders from the main areas of the city that the opposition fighters had entered, the three military sources said.

IRAN'S ROLE IN THE REGION

The opposition, including factions backed by Türkiye, said on Friday their fighters were sweeping through various Aleppo neighborhoods.

Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander in the Jaish al-Izza brigade, said their speedy advance had been helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower to support the government in the broader Aleppo province.

Iran's allies in the region have suffered a series of blows at the hands of Israel as the Gaza war has expanded through the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, in a phone call with his Syrian counterpart on Friday, accused the United States and Israel of being behind the opposition attack.

The fighters have said the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces on areas of Idlib province, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army.

Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Türkiye, which supports the fighters, had given a green light to the offensive. Turkish officials were not immediately available to comment on Saturday.

Türkiye’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the clashes between opposition and government forces had resulted in an undesirable escalation of tensions.

In a statement, spokesperson Oncu Keceli said that avoiding greater instability in the region was Türkiye’s priority, adding that Ankara had warned that recent attacks on Idlib undermined the spirit and implementation of de-escalation agreements.

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Arab World

Brother Details to Asharq Al-Awsat Luring, Disappearance of Lebanese Retired Officer

Abdul Salam Shukr speaks to Asharq Al-Awsat from Nabi Sheet. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Abdul Salam Shukr speaks to Asharq Al-Awsat from Nabi Sheet. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Brother Details to Asharq Al-Awsat Luring, Disappearance of Lebanese Retired Officer

Abdul Salam Shukr speaks to Asharq Al-Awsat from Nabi Sheet. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Abdul Salam Shukr speaks to Asharq Al-Awsat from Nabi Sheet. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Shock still grips the family of retired Lebanese General Security captain Ahmed Shukr, who was abducted days ago, as Lebanese security and judicial assessments increasingly point to Israeli intelligence as being behind his disappearance, over suspected links to the 1986 vanishing of Israeli airman Ron Arad in southern Lebanon.

His brother, Abdul Salam Shukr, told Asharq Al-Awsat the story began when a Lebanese expatriate living in Kinshasa, identified as A.M., contacted Ahmed and asked to rent his apartment in the Choueifat area, south of Beirut.

The two agreed months ago, and the man paid $500 in rent.

The expatriate made repeated visits to Lebanon and met Shukr at his home during one of them. He later contacted the retired officer to say that a wealthy African investor named Salim Kassab, later found to be a fake name, was interested in purchasing a plot of land in the eastern city of Zahle and needed his assistance.

Abdul Salam said the expatriate inspected the land, then called two weeks after leaving Lebanon to say the investor had agreed to buy it and would visit the country. He asked Ahmed to meet him at the site at 4:30 p.m. on the day of the abduction.

He said the expatriate insisted on the timing because it suited the buyer, despite Ahmed’s objections that darkness would have fallen by then, and the land’s features would not be visible. The expatriate later apologized for not attending, claiming he had broken his foot, and said the investor would visit the site alone with Ahmed.

At the time of the meeting, Ahmed disappeared.

“We know nothing about him except what we have heard through security and judicial leaks,” Abdul Salam said. He added that the abductors had rented a house in Zahle and erased all traces from it after kidnapping Ahmed.

Surveillance cameras tracked the vehicle as it headed toward the town of Souireh in the western Bekaa, where the trail then vanished. Souireh was previously used as a smuggling route from southwestern Damascus into Lebanon.

Loyalty to the state

“My brother served 40 years in the military establishment. His loyalty was only to the state and its institutions. He never belonged to any party,” Abdul Salam said. “We are a family that does not engage in politics.”

Ahmed was lured last week in a carefully planned operation that began in his hometown of Nabi Sheet in the northern Bekaa, before he went missing at a point very close to the city of Zahle.

Family members and residents have been gathering at the home of Nabi Sheet’s mukhtar, Abbas Shukr, to voice their protest and condemnation of the abduction.

The family said Ahmed Shukr retired nine years ago after serving for four decades in the General Security, during which he held several posts, including the Masnaa border crossing with Syria and the Qaa crossing in northeastern Lebanon.

“My brother joined the military in 1979, which means he was an ‘officer of the state’ when Arad disappeared in 1986,” Abdul Salam told Asharq Awsat. “An officer of the state does not belong to parties.”

He rejected attempts to link the family by kinship to Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah leader killed by Israel in July 2024 in Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying no one in the town even knew him.

“He left the town in the early 1980s and never returned. He was distant even from his relatives,” he said, adding that since retiring, his brother “never left the Bekaa. He stayed at home and played cards with friends at night.”

The family home remains in a state of disbelief, a scene that has persisted since his disappearance last week. The case only began to move officially after Vice President of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Ali al Khatib contacted Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Interior Minister Ahmed al-Hajjar, according to Abdul Salam.

He said Aoun pledged to instruct security and judicial authorities to expand the investigation and uncover the circumstances surrounding the incident. Officials from the Amal Movement were also in constant contact with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is head of the movement, to follow up on the case.

Mystery remains

“We demand that the judiciary and security agencies confirm or deny the leak about an alleged link to Ron Arad’s disappearance,” Abdul Salam said.

“That leak does not concern us. What matters is what the security agencies say, including General Security, where Ahmed served, and the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, which is leading the investigation.”

He said the key to the mystery lies with A.M., a native of the southern town of Qana who lives in Kinshasa and has been evading the family’s calls.

“The Lebanese state must ask Interpol to arrest him and bring him to Lebanon for questioning,” he urged, adding that the man no longer answers his phone and that all available information about him, including video clips, is now in the hands of security agencies.

Abdul Salam said the family believes the expatriate coordinated the plot with Israel’s Mossad, guiding them to this point and enabling an operation carried out with precision and professionalism.

He said Lebanese security agencies told the family the abductors left no fingerprints, neither at the Zahle property nor at the Choueifat apartment, and that no evidence has been found. The kidnappers’ vehicle also remains unidentified.

Arab World

UK, Canada, Germany and Others Condemn Israel’s West Bank Settlement Plan

A Palestinian woman walks past the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, southeast of Jerusalem, on November 21, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman walks past the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, southeast of Jerusalem, on November 21, 2025. (AFP)
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UK, Canada, Germany and Others Condemn Israel’s West Bank Settlement Plan

A Palestinian woman walks past the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, southeast of Jerusalem, on November 21, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman walks past the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, southeast of Jerusalem, on November 21, 2025. (AFP)

Countries including Britain, Canada and Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West ‌Bank, saying ‌they violated ‌international ⁠law and risked ‌fueling instability.

"We call on Israel to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of ⁠settlements," said a joint ‌statement released ‍by Britain, ‍which also included ‍Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

"We recall that such unilateral actions, as ⁠part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but also risk fueling instability," the statement ‌added.

Arab World

Syria State Media Says 3 Dead in Clashes in Latakia Province

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria State Media Says 3 Dead in Clashes in Latakia Province

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)

Syrian state media said three people were killed Wednesday in clashes with security forces in coastal Latakia province, the heartland of the country's Alawite minority community.

"Three members of remnants of the former regime were killed after clashes with internal security forces" outside the city of Jableh, state television said.

State news agency SANA had earlier reported "clashes with a group of wanted outlaws" in the area, and said an unspecified number of security personnel were wounded.

Since last December's ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, Syria's new authorities have frequently reported security operations against remnants of his government.

Syria's coastal areas saw the killing of Alawite civilians in March, with authorities accusing armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces.

A national commission of inquiry said at least 1,426 members of the minority community were killed at the time.

Last month, thousands of people demonstrated on the Alawite coast in protest of fresh attacks targeting their community.