SYRIAN REBEL ASSAULT NEAR ALEPPO IS A ‘LIMITED OPERATION’, SAYS TURKEY

Thu 28 November 2024:

Turkish security sources said on Thursday that Syrian rebel groups had launched “a limited offensive” towards Aleppo to stop Syrian government attacks targeting the civilian population in Idlib, Middle East Eye reported.

Since Wednesday, footage circulating on social media has shown Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and aligned forces making significant advances, capturing large swathes of territory and progressing rapidly towards the outskirts of Aleppo city.

Reports suggest that some rebel groups affiliated with the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army have joined the operation, though the majority of those forces have so far refrained from participating.

A senior Turkish security source told Middle East Eye that Turkey attempted to prevent the offensive to avoid further escalating tensions in the region, especially given Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

However, efforts to use channels established by a 2019 de-escalation agreement to halt Russian and Syrian government air strikes targeting residential areas of rebel-held Idlib province had not yielded results.

“In response to these attacks, Syrian opposition groups launched a limited operation towards Aleppo, targeting the areas from which the attacks originated,” the source said.

“What was initially planned as a limited operation expanded as regime forces began fleeing their positions.”

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Battle over eastern Idlib

The source said that the operation aims to restore the boundaries of the Idlib de-escalation zone, which were originally agreed upon in 2019 by Russia, Turkey and Iran.

The source added that Russian and Syrian government attacks had reduced the size of the de-escalation zone after forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, seized more territory near Aleppo in 2020 in violation of the agreement.

The new operation, the source indicated, seeks to restore rebel control over the eastern part of Idlib up to the limits originally agreed upon by Turkey, Russia, and Iran.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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