JERUSALEM – A radical Islamist group launched its largest military incursion against Syrian regime forces since 2020 in the northwest of the war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, unleashing Russian and Syrian warplanes on Thursday to bomb the insurgents’ offensive .
Rebels led by the US-designated Islamist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed a dozen towns and villages in northwestern Aleppo province, controlled by the Syrian president’s forces Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian Islamist offensive began the same day Assad’s ally, the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, reached a ceasefire deal with Israel to end more than 14 months of war.
The battle unfolding in Syria involves a motley crew of U.S.-ranked state sponsors of terrorism — the Assad regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran — against a Turkish-backed Islamist terrorist movement. The Russian regime of Vladimir Putin has been accused of war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine.
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Smoke rises Thursday amid fighting between opposition factions and Syrian government troops in Majdaliya, Syria’s Idlib countryside. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Rebekah Koffler, a former US defense intelligence officer and Putin expert, told Fox News Digital: “It’s textbook Putin, what’s happening in Syria, on Thanksgiving Day. He is doing what is called a lateral escalation in Syria, in response to Biden authorizing [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky will use US ATACMs to strike deep into Russia, and Zelensky will accept Biden’s offer. Russia and the United States are on opposing sides in the war in Syria. Putin is therefore strengthening his support for Assad, which goes against US policy, signaling to Biden that he will oppose US interests in several geographies. »
Anti-regime groups take control of some villages in the western countryside as clashes between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the armed opposition group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continue on Wednesday in Aleppo, in Syria. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Koffler added: “Putin is pressuring Biden to revoke Zelensky’s authorization to use ATACM against Russia. The doctrine is “escalation for de-escalation”. With the recent Oreshnik hypersonic missile strike on Ukraine, Putin has moved up several rungs on the escalation ladder. As Russian air forces join Syrian aerial bombardments in rebel-held northwest Syria, it is also moving laterally on the escalation ladder, to overtake the United States. , unbalance Biden and create as much negotiating leverage on Ukraine before President Trump begins his second term. I would not be surprised if Assad hits rebel-controlled territories with chemical weapons. Again.”
Alex Grinberg, an Israeli Russia expert, told Fox News Digital that the rest of Assad’s army cannot fight Hayat Tahrir al-Sham without Russian air power.
He said this is “usually what the Russians do” in Syria.
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Iranian regime-controlled state media said Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in Aleppo during the incursion. Pourhashemi was a senior military advisor to the IRGC in Syria.
Anti-regime groups took control of some villages in the western countryside as clashes between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the armed opposition group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continued in Aleppo on Wednesday , in Syria. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Islamist rebels say the campaign was a response to intensified strikes in recent weeks against civilians by Russian and Syrian air forces in areas of southern Idlib, and to preempt any attack by the Syrian army, which , according to them, was reinforcing its troops near the front. lines with the rebels.
Assad’s war against his people, which began with Syrians’ call for democracy in 2011, has resulted in the killing of more than 500,000 people.
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Iran sent thousands of fighters to Syria during the Syrian war. Although these included members of the Guard, officially advisors, most were Shiite militiamen from across the region.
Turkish security sources said Thursday that rebels initially launched a limited operation after attacks by Syrian government forces, and expanded the operation after government forces abandoned their positions.
Reuters contributed to this report.
