The Syrian government launched counterattacks on Monday, Dec. 2, against rebels who seized territory in the northwestern part of the country, and they did it with Russian help. Syrian state media announced the strikes, coming days after insurgent rebels seized the city of Aleppo. It’s another eruption of violence in the decade-old conflict.
Syrian forces took Aleppo after years of fighting, but rebels were able to reclaim the entire city in just a few days.
The Islamist rebels are from a group the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group governed the region of Idlib, on the border with Turkey, for the last few years. The Turkish government supported the rebels and stepped in to negotiate a ceasefire in 2020.
But now, the rebels are in Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, says rebels took large portions of the western and northwestern parts of the country.
Russia and Iran, meanwhile, are standing by Syria’s longtime government in President Bashar Al-Assad. It’s not clear yet how well the Syrian government can defend against the rebels, especially considering the changes in territory since the offensive began just days ago.
Until the recent offensive, Syrian forces and rebels have largely avoided major conflict since 2020. But that came after nearly nine years of fighting.
In that time, hundreds of thousands of people died in the civil war. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees says more than 12 million people are still dealing with displacement from their homes because of the war.
This is the latest flashpoint in a region where several countries have been engaged in recent fighting. Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza in a conflict that’s now over a year old. And just last week, the Israeli military agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, stopping months of fighting in Lebanon, at least temporarily.
