In Syria, there was a powerful moment when Islamist rebels managed to bring down a statue of Bashar Al Assad’s brother in Aleppo. This event marked a significant blow to the government.
Meanwhile, Russia has launched air strikes into the Syrian city for the first time since 2016 in response.
After seizing Aleppo, thousands of Syrian rebels quickly spread out across the city using vehicles equipped with makeshift armor. They strategically positioned themselves at key sites like the old citadel. Eyewitnesses and fighters reported that the rebels encountered minimal resistance from government forces.
Responding to the rebel advance, the Syrian military announced that they are repositioning their troops to defend against the attack on Aleppo and are gearing up for a potential counteroffensive to regain control.
The statement acknowledged that insurgents entered large parts of the city but said they have not established bases or checkpoints.
Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo Citadel.
They tore down posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, stepping on some and burning others.
In footage posted to X, rebels can be seen tearing down the statue of the president’s brother Bassel Al Assad, who died in a car crash in 1994.
The video shows how insurgents manage to yank at the statue by tying it to rope that is attached to a moving truck.
As the figure topples over and smashes onto the hard floor, rebels can be heard cheering and chanting as they fire gunshots into the air.
Cars driving by join in on the celebration as they honk their horns.
Other videos documenting the insurgence have been shared online too.
One clip shows how men dressed in camouflage holding weapons pull down the Syrian flag from a monument in Aleppo.
The surprise takeover is a huge embarrassment for Assad, who managed to regain total control of the city in 2016, after expelling insurgents and thousands of civilians from its eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which his forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.
Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since then.
The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.
The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas.
Turkey, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Syrian government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.
Meanwhile, a Syrian war monitor said today that rebels had seized Aleppo’s civilian airport – the first time they have taken such a facility – along with key towns in Idlib and Hama provinces as they waged a dayslong offensive.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions ‘took control of the Aleppo international airport’ on the city’s southeastern outskirts after government forces withdrew, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that rebels also advanced in Hama and Idlib provinces, taking control of ‘dozens of strategic towns without any resistance’.
The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home.
A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive.
Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.
Witnesses said two airstrikes on the city’s edge late Friday targeted insurgent reinforcements and hit near residential areas. A war monitor said 20 fighters were killed.
More than 300 people have been killed since fighting broke out on Wednesday, according to a war monitor.
It comes as the Syrian army said today said that dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack by rebels.
Russia has launched air strikes on part of Aleppo in response – the first since 2016 – according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
