He syrian army confirmed this Saturday that Islamist rebels backed by Türkiye have taken control of “a large part” of Aleppoin it northern syriawhere regular troops have suffered “dozens” of casualties and have withdrawn “temporarily” while waiting for reinforcements to counterattack.
“The large number of terrorists and the multiple combat fronts led our Armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening defense lines to absorb the attack, preserve civilian and soldier lives and prepare for a counterattack,” the Syrian Army said in a statement.
Four days ago, the Islamist alliance Levant Liberation Agency -ancient Against Nusra- and factions backed by Türkiye launched a “massive” offensive against different points in the province of Aleppo and Idlibconsidered the last opposition bastion in Syria.
According to the Syrian Armed Forces, these opposition factions are made up of “thousands of foreign terrorists“that they have “heavy weapons and a large number of drones”, while they stated that in recent days the Army has confronted them “along a strip of more than 100 kilometers to stop their advance.”
The Army believes that the rebels can enter a large part of Aleppo’s neighborhoods in the next few hours
“During the fighting, dozens of men from our Armed Forces died and others were injured,” acknowledged the Army, which also confirmed that the “continuous flow” of rebel fighters has caused them to “enter in the last hours into a large part of the neighborhoods of the city of Aleppo”.
However, he stated that regular troops have continued to launch “concentrated attacks“against the insurgents after their “temporary” withdrawal from Aleppo, “waiting for the arrival of military forces to be completed to distribute them in the combat axes, in preparation for a counterattack.”
“The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces confirms that this measure it has taken is temporary and will work by all possible means to guarantee the safety of our people in the city of Aleppo,” continued the military institution, which promised to “restore State control” and “expel” the rebels
The offensive occurs at a time when Türkiye seeks to reestablish relations with Damascusalthough the Syrian Government claims that Ankara It must withdraw its troops from northern Syria and stop supporting opposition groups to move towards the normalization of ties, broken since the start of the Syrian civil war 13 years ago.
This operation began on the same day as the entry into force of the truce in Lebanon and after the hard blows inflicted by Israel to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah both in that country and in Syria, where the armed movement maintains a large presence and is one of the main allies of the Government of Damascus.
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