SYRIA WAR UPDATES

Thirteen years of war in Syria have spawned numerous new groups and brought the country’s institutions into the international spotlight.

Here are some of the acronyms for the major players in the conflict:

• HTS: Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Idlib-based rebel group leading the ongoing military offensive. HTS is the latest iteration of the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria. Al-Nusra rebranded itself and severed its ties to al-Qaeda in 2016. But HTS remains on the US list of “foreign terrorist organisations”.
• SAA: The Syrian Arab Army, the government’s main fighting force
• SNA: The Syrian National Army, a Turkish-backed rebel force operating in northern Syria
• FSA: The Free Syrian Army, one of the first organised rebel groups to form after the uprising in 2011. It operated as an umbrella coalition before splintering. It was eventually succeeded by the SNA.
• SDF: The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-dominated, US-backed group that controls parts of eastern Syria
• NDF: The National Defence Forces, a pro-government paramilitary group that fights alongside the Syrian military
• ISIL (ISIS): The Islamic State in the Levant is also known as the “Islamic State in Syria” and simply, the “Islamic State”. Considered a hardline group, it controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria until its territorial defeat in 2017. The northern city of Raqqa was its de-facto capital in Syria.

Republican French Hill and Democrat Brendan Boyle – who co-chair the Friends of a Free, Stable, and Democratic Syria Caucus in the US – say they are “closely monitoring” the opposition’s offensive and slam what they call al-Assad’s “brutal regime”.

“We stand with the Syrian people as they confront this murderous dictator, who continues to deprive them of food, prosperity and democracy,” they said in a joint statement.

The group Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is leading the Syrian rebels’ offensive, is designated as a “foreign terrorist organisation” by Washington.

Syrian opposition forces have celebrated a successful offensive to reclaim large parts of Aleppo, one of the most populous cities in the country.

Fighters were seen posing on tanks, burning government flags and defacing posters depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Check out some of the images from Saturday below.

The 22-country bloc has called for respecting the unity and sovereignty of Syria.

Arab League spokesman Jamal Rushdi also voiced concern that “terrorist groups” may exploit the violence to “resume their activities”.

The Arab League re-admitted Syria to the organisation in 2023, a dozen years after suspending the country’s membership over its deadly crackdown on antigovernment protests during the “Arab Spring” movement.

On November 5, the United States held its presidential election, resulting in a big victory for Donald Trump.

The Republican candidate campaigned on an “America First” platform and promised to restore peace throughout the world, as well as disengage the US from costly foreign conflicts.

Now, with a new chapter emerging in Syria’s civil war, how will the US respond?

Joshua Landis, a Middle East studies professor at the University of Oklahoma, said he anticipates wariness from the US, despite its longtime collaboration with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led coalition.

Together, the US and the SDF control about 25 percent of Syria’s territory, including many oil-rich regions.

“America is going to want to stay out of this. The trouble is, it’s going to come back to bite them because they have depended on supporting the Kurds,” Landis said.

But the US alliance with the Kurds puts the country on a crash course with Turkiye, which views the ethnic group as a threat. Turkiye considers groups like the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as “terrorist” organisations.

“Turkey is going to want the Americans to leave, and it’s going to want to attack the Kurds,” Landis said.

“That’s one of their major objectives in this. The rebels want to go to Damascus, but Turkey wants to go and get rid of the YPG. So that’s going to put America in the hot seat. They’re going to have to choose between Turkey and the Kurds. And it’s likely that President Trump, the new incoming president, will choose Turkey over the Kurds.”

We reported earlier that al-Assad held a phone call with his Emirati counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Now, Abu Dhabi has released a readout of the conversation through its official news agency WAM.

“His Highness affirmed the UAE’s solidarity with Syria and support against terrorism and extremism,” it said.

“He also stressed the UAE’s position in support of efforts and initiatives to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis that would achieve the aspiration of the brotherly Syrian people for stability and development and ensure the unity of Syria and its sovereignty over its entire territory.”

The White Helmets group says attacks by Russian and Syrian government forces in northwestern Syria on Saturday have killed seven people, including three children and one woman.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Joshua Landis, a professor of Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma, noted a contrast between the enthusiasm among the rebel forces and the exhaustion among Syrian government fighters.

After the success of this week’s lightning offensive in Aleppo, Landis pointed out that the rebels are riding high.

“The opposition has, I think, far exceeded what it set out to do. And when [the rebel fighters] realised there was very little that the Syrian military was willing to fight for and began to just melt away, they’ve been on a roll,” he explained. “There’s extraordinary energy and excitement amongst the rebel forces.”

That excitement is a point of divergence with the Syrian military. Landis said the dismal state of Syria’s economy has fed dissatisfaction among government troops.

“Many Syrians were hoping that the economic situation would improve, jobs would come back [and] state services like electricity, schools and so forth would revive. And none of that has happened,” Landis explained.

“In fact, the economy has continued to shrink. People have no jobs. They’re making $20 a month. And they’re hungry. And they see no positive future for them, with Assad in the government. And that means they don’t want to fight.”

Syria’s military also has little hope of receiving much foreign assistance, given the fact that its allies, like Iran, Russia and Hezbollah in Lebanon, are occupied with other conflicts elsewhere.

“Its allies are really on the sidelines and unable to come to its aid,” Landis said. “The spirit has really gone out of the Syrian military.”

The Syrian military says armed opposition groups are using their platforms as part of a coordinated “media war” to spread fake news and affect the morale of the Syrian people.

The army did not specify which rebel claims were false, but it said the groups were taking advantage of the “field events” in Aleppo to target other cities with rumours.

“The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces urges against paying attention to these pages or believing their reports,” it said.  v4

“Our courageous army has been and will remain present strongly and steadfast to perform its duties of defending the country and citizens against all forms of terrorism.”

With few independent journalists on the ground, rumours benefitting different sides in the war have been spreading online.

The Syrian government, ISIL (ISIS) and rebel groups have detained and harmed journalists in recent years.

Armed Syrian opposition groups say bakeries in Aleppo will operate throughout the night and the following day after a curfew was imposed on the city.

“We ask all bakery workers to return to their jobs to continue to provide bread to our people,” they said in a statement.

The rescue group, known as the White Helmets, says Russian-Syrian air strikes have killed and injured civilians in the village of Arran, east of Aleppo, without specifying the number of casualties.

The White Helmets also said air strikes targeted neighbourhoods in Idlib.

Iran has denounced what it calls an assault by “armed terrorist elements” on its diplomatic facility in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

Videos circulating online appeared to show rebel fighters tearing down posters of Iranian leaders inside the consulate.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry “confirmed that the Consul General and all members of the Iranian consulate in Aleppo are safe and unharmed”.

Al-Assad has held a phone call with his Emirati counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as MBZ, to discuss the latest developments in Syria’s civil war, the president’s office announced.

“Al-Assad stressed during the call that Syria is continuing to defend its stability and unity of its land in the face of terrorists and their supporters, and it is able with the help of allies and friends to repel them and eradicate them,” the Syrian presidency said.

“Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed re-asserted during the call that his country’s backing of the Syrian state and supporting it in fighting terrorism.”

The United Arab Emirates is a close ally of the United States and has formal relations with Israel, but Abu Dhabi also enjoys warm relations with al-Assad’s government despite Damascus’s strong ties with Tehran and Hezbollah.

The Administration of Military Operations, which speaks for Syrian rebels, says the groups are expanding safe areas and working to return displaced Syrians to newly captured areas.

The population of the Idlib province had swelled up over the years that the war has stretched on, with hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing government-controlled areas to the northwest of the country.

Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi will visit Damascus and Ankara in the coming days, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has announced.

Araghchi had held a phone call with his Syrian counterpart Bassam Sabbagh on Friday.

“He underlined that the Syrian government and people remain steadfast in resisting these assaults and are committed to thwarting the sinister plans of terrorists and their supporters,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Syrian president has held a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the Syrian state-run media outlet Al-Ikhbariyah reports.

“Al-Sudani reasserted during the call that the security of Syria and Iraq are one, stressing that Iraq is ready to provide all required support to Syria to confront terrorism,” Al-Ikhbariyah said.

Al Jazeera correspondent Resul Serdar explained that the shake-up in the Syrian civil war will force other international powers to consider their standing in the region — and how to respond.

“Each of these shareholders — Americans, Russians, Iranians and Turks, the major shareholders in the Syrian scene — they need to reposition themselves,” Serdar said.

“So the status quo that was in place since 2016 has just collapsed. It is shattered. And now each of the actors is trying to recalibrate their moves and to reposition themselves.”

Serdar pointed out that the United States will be one of the most important players in the conflict, as one of the world’s largest militaries with multiple bases already established in Syria.

“Americans have so far have remained silent. They kept quiet. We do not know what the Americans are thinking,” Serdar explained.

Meanwhile, the Russians are juggling competing demands, as the war in Ukraine rages on. Since Russia’s ground forces are concentrated in Ukraine, Serdar said the country is likely to assist the government of President Bashar al-Assad, its ally, from the sky.

Still, Serdar warned that aerial attacks come with significant downsides.

“If Russians go too big, bombing the all locations that belong to the opposition, then they are going to risk everything,” he said. “Because if they do not succeed to reverse [the rebels’ gains], then at the end of the day, the whole anger of the opposition is going to be directed towards the Russians.”

Turkey, Serdar added, will also be an international power to watch in the coming days, as the country borders the rebel-held region of Idlib, a stronghold for the group Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

“Turkey is a lifeline for Idlib. And for the HTS to survive logistically in terms of the food, in terms of their essentials, even in terms of the equipment, they have to be on good terms with Turks,” he said.

The Syrian civil war, one of the most devastating conflicts of the 21st century, has been raging for 13 years.

The conflict started in 2011 as Syrians started protesting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad as part of the “Arab Spring” pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East that year.

The demonstrations met a deadly crackdown by security forces, and the violence led some members of the Syrian military to defect to the opposition camp.

The once-peaceful revolt quickly morphed into an armed conflict with the emergence of antigovernment forces operating under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Amid the chaos, ISIL (ISIS) also gained a foothold in the country, as it overran large parts of neighbouring Iraq.

Facing territorial losses and a possible military collapse, the Assad government turned to its allies for help. Lebanon’s Hezbollah fully entered the war to fight alongside Syrian forces in 2013. Two years later, Russia joined the fight.

With the support of Hezbollah, Iran and Russia, the Syrian government recaptured large parts of the country, most notably the Damascus countryside and the city of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, a United States-backed, Kurdish-dominated force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces rose in the northeast of the country with the stated aim of fighting ISIL.

As the Syrian government made advances across the country, local ceasefires gave safe passage for armed rebels to flee to the northwestern province of Idlib.

Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham — a group linked to the al-Nusra Front, which operated as al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria early in the war — has been the dominant force in Idlib.

Turkish-backed rebels have also been active in the Aleppo countryside.

The war all but came to a standstill in 2020 after a ceasefire agreement in Idlib, brokered by Turkiye and Russia.

For the past four years, the country has seen limited violence with unofficial boundary lines keeping the war’s three major parties — the Syrian army, rebels and the SDF — in the territories they control.

However, the rebels’ lightning offensive towards Aleppo this week has shattered the relative calm, once again threatening al-Assad’s grip on power.

But this time, the Syrian government’s main allies, Hezbollah and Russia, are busy fighting their own wars, against Israel and Ukraine respectively.

Why is there renewed attention on Syria’s long-running civil war? Here is a summary of the rapidly developing events of the past few days:

• Syria’s rebels have launched a lightning offensive from the northwestern province of Idlib towards Aleppo and areas farther south in the central part of the country.
• Armed opposition groups have captured several landmarks in Aleppo, including the city’s international airport, as well as its ancient citadel.
• Footage shared online shows rebel forces tearing down posters and statues of President Bashar al-Assad and his family in Aleppo and surrounding towns and villages.
• Syrian rebels have advanced south towards Hama, but state media sources have denied that opposition fighters have reached the central Syrian city.
• The Syrian Army says its forces are “performing their patriotic duties in confronting terrorist groups” across the country, but opposition fighters appear to have faced little resistance in Aleppo.
• Syria’s official news agency SANA cites a military source as saying that the Russian and Syrian air forces are targeting rebel positions and supply lines.