By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Syrian opposition groups have breached Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, after blowing up two car bombs and fighting with government forces on Friday in clashes that have killed some 200 people, a Syria war monitor and witnesses say.
Insurgents have been approaching Aleppo city for days and seized several towns and villages along the way.
The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, who had backed Syrian government forces since 2015, were preoccupied with their battles at home.
The latest fighting marked the first time in years that rebel forces in north-western Syria captured territory from President Bashar al-Assad’s military.
It came shortly after Israel and Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, agreed on a ceasefire deal that involved withdrawing from territory in southern Lebanon.
Additionally, Russia’s military, which also supports Syria’s government, faces challenges as well because of Moscow’s focus on the war in Ukraine.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the insurgents blew up two car bombs at the city’s western edge on Friday.
INSURGENT COMMANDER
An insurgent commander urged residents through social media to cooperate with the advancing forces.
The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions said they had seized control of several towns and villages in Aleppo and Idlib provinces since Wednesday.
The Syrian military said its forces were confronting a “large-scale” attack by “terrorists” and inflicting heavy losses on them.
More than 180 combatants on both sides had been killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Additionally, at least 19 civilians had also been killed in Syrian and Russian air strikes on opposition-held areas, it added.
More than half a million people have been killed in the civil war that erupted after the government cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011, according to official estimates.
Among those fleeing are also thousands of Christians, Worthy News established.
REMAINING STRONGHOLD
Idlib, where the current fighting occurs, is the last remaining opposition stronghold and is home to more than 4 million people. Many of these residents have been displaced during the armed conflict and are living in dire conditions, according to aid workers.
HTS mainly controls the enclave, but Turkish-backed rebel factions operating under the banner of the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Turkish forces are also based there.
In 2020, Turkey and Russia – a staunch ally of Assad – brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib.
That led to an extended lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, air strikes, and shelling continued. Turkish media said the insurgents now control about 70 locations in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
Syria’s state media reported earlier Friday that “projectiles” from insurgents landed in the student accommodations at Aleppo’s university in the city center, killing four people, including two students.
The report said that public transportation to the city had also been diverted from the main highway linking Aleppo to Damascus to avoid clashes. Fighters reportedly also advanced on the town of Saragab, in northwestern Idlib province, a strategic area that would secure supply lines to Aleppo.
This week’s advances were one of the largest by opposition factions and amounted to the most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that it uncovered one of the most extensive and sophisticated Hamas tunnel systems discovered to date, a sprawling underground route running more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles) and plunging approximately 25 meters (82 feet) underground beneath Rafah.
Six Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds have ignited a political firestorm after releasing a video urging U.S. service members and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders,” drawing sharp reactions from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The White House was preparing Friday for a highly visible meeting between Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, and U.S. President Donald J. Trump amid growing concerns over possible federal troop or National Guard deployments to the city. The made-for-television get-together comes as the president links the influx of migrants — many of them arriving undocumented, or in his words “illegally” — and rising crime in America’s largest city to what he describes as weakened local governance.
A Russian oil tanker under U.S. sanctions made a dramatic U-turn on its way to Venezuela after a U.S. warship appeared in its path near the country’s coast, Worthy News learned early Friday.
A man has been charged with federal terrorism offenses after allegedly dousing a woman with liquid and setting her on fire aboard a Chicago subway train, authorities confirmed Friday, in a case that revived concerns about transit safety amid rising violence in U.S. public-transport systems.
Capitol Hill — the U.S. seat of Congress and legislative center of American government — faced fresh drama Thursday when a small electrical fire broke out in the underground subway system connecting the Rayburn House Office Building to the U.S. Capitol, forcing evacuations.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump met Thursday with a group of freed Israeli hostages and their loved ones at the White House, praising the survivors as “heroes” and vowing continued support for efforts to return remaining captives held in Gaza.