Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has broken a long-lasting calm on the northwestern front line of the Syrian civil war a new offensive by rebel groupswhich may go down in the history of the conflict as the largest military operation of recent years. During the attack launched in the vicinity of Aleppo and Idlib province, the insurgents several strategic settlements, including military base No. 46 in Urm al-Kubra was also occupied.
According to initial reports, more than 130 people, including fighters from both sides, have been killed in the clashes. The Syrian government forces, with Russian air support, carried out intensive retaliatory strikes on the positions of the rebels, but the front lines moved in several places.
HTS and their allies – which include both extremist and moderate groups – acted with a clear goal: to prevent another advance by the Syrian government, which has become increasingly powerful in recent months. Hasan Abd al-Ghani, a rebel commander, said the attack was launched “to prevent aggression and protect the civilian population”.
The Syrian civil war began in 2011, when the regime led by Bashar al-Assad used violence against protesters. Events quickly escalated, and the conflict became a proxy war on a global scale following the intervention of international powers and regional actors.
According to UN data, more than 500,000 people have lost their lives so far, and millions have become homeless or forced to flee abroad.
Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are currently hosting more than five million Syrian refugees, while 6.8 million people are internally displaced.
Although a ceasefire was brokered by Russia and Turkey in 2020, the fighting never ended completely. According to Charles Lister, an expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington the events of the past months show that the conflict
it was never really frozen.
Cover photo: Smoke billows at the site of clashes between Syrian opposition groups and regime forces (Photo: AFP)
Source: magyarnemzet.hu
