Syria: President Assad and Russia's forces carry out bombings in the northwest of the country after a heavy rebel offensive
Jihadist forces, opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, carried out the first large-scale attack in years. The government accused them of violating a ceasefire agreement reached in 2020 between Russia, which supports the Syrian president, and Turkey, which backs the rebels.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Russian and Syrian fighter jets carried out bombing raids in northwestern Syria near the border with Turkey on Thursday after rebels, who control that region, carried out a large-scale attack for the first time in years on territories under the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, government and opposition factions said, Reuters reported.
The incursion by the rebels, led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, began a day earlier and made significant gains in the province of Aleppo, in northwestern Syria.
Syrian officials said the rebel offensive was carried out on a dozen villages and towns in the aforementioned province and in the city of Idlib, also located in the northwest of the country.
The rebels also attacked Al Nayrab airport in eastern Aleppo, where there are pro-Iranian militia positions.
More than 130 people were killed in the fighting, including 49 soldiers belonging to the Syrian Army, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It was the biggest attack since March 2020, when Russia, which supports Assad, and Turkey, which backs the rebels, reached a ceasefire agreement, ending years of fighting that resulted in the uprooting of millions of Syrians who oppose Assad's government.
The rebels justified their campaign by claiming that it was a reaction to attacks carried out in recent weeks by Russian and Syrian government forces in southern Idlib, as well as to pre-empt any offensive by Assad's troops, who were sending troops near the rebel-held area.
The Assad government said for its part that the rebel attacks were a violation of the 2020 agreement.
US bombing in Syria
The United States said Tuesday that it carried out a bombing against a weapons depot in eastern Syria, controlled by pro-Iranian militias, in response to an attack perpetrated against US forces, which are in the Arab country, especially to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group.
The announcement, made by the US Central Command (CENTCOM), added that the US offensive was in response to the launch of a missile that hit a US base in the Al Omar oil field in Deir Ezzor province on Monday.
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