Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham fighters were reported to have captured a Syrian army armory and seized armored vehicles during the attack.
Dozens of Syrian army soldiers and rebel fighters have been killed in northern Aleppo, where the Hayate Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group and allied forces have seized control of at least 10 districts controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. According to the report.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said nearly 100 fighters and soldiers were killed in Wednesday’s clashes following an operation by HTS to control large areas of northwestern Syria.
Activists working with the observatory reported the deaths of 44 HTS members and 16 members of allied armed groups.
“Also, 37 members [Syrian] “Regiment forces, including at least four officers of different ranks, were killed, five were taken prisoner, and weapons depots, armored vehicles, machinery and heavy weapons were seized,” the observatory said in a statement.
The monitoring group also said civilians, including children, were killed and injured in the clashes, which saw Syrian forces fire “hundreds of artillery shells and missiles at civilian and military positions” during the fighting.
HTS fighter jets and their allies were nearly 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside Aleppo and a few kilometers from Nubl and Zahra, two Shiite towns where the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has a strong armed presence. A Syrian military source said that they had advanced to a remote location. He told Reuters.
HTS forces also attacked al-Naib airport, east of Aleppo, which houses an outpost of pro-Iran fighters.
Reuters reported that the attack was triggered by intensified airstrikes targeting civilians in Syria’s southern Idlib region in recent weeks and preempting any attacks by the Syrian army, which has been ramping up its forces. Near the front lines with HTS and other groups.
Syria’s official state media did not report the fighting, but a pro-government website said troops had attacked HTS hideouts and killed dozens of people.
Witnesses said hundreds of families from Aleppo, the last refuge for al-Assad opponents, had fled to safe areas along the Turkish border.
HTS, classified as a ‘terrorist organization’ by the United States, has long been a target of the Syrian government and Russian military.
HTS, which severed ties with the transnational al Qaeda group, has changed its name in recent years and has been described as a more moderate group targeting regional areas of Syria. It has become the most powerful rebel group in northwestern Syria.
Russia entered Syria’s civil war in 2015 as President al-Assad’s rule came increasingly under threat from rebels.
