Rebels in front of the Citadel in Aleppo, Syria, November 29, 2024

Anti-Assad Forces Advance in Northwest Syria

UPDATE 2134 GMT:

Russian military observers report that the Kremlin has dismissed Sergey Kisel, the general in charge of Russia’s forces in Syria.

Unconfirmed claims said Kisel was being replaced by Col. Gen. Alexander Chaiko.

The removal of Kisel, 53, was reported by the Telegram channel Rybar, which is close to the Russian Defense Ministry, and by the Voenny Osvedomitel (Military Informant) site.

UPDATE 2117 GMT:

Rebels in the Presidential Guest Palace in Aleppo:

UPDATE 2101 GMT:

Speaking with Italy’s RAI News, Bishop Hanna Jallouf, the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo, describes a Russian airstrike on the Fransciscan congregation: “Damage but we are unharmed. The rebels are treating us with respect.”

UPDATE 2032 GMT:

Footage of rebels inside a center of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib Province:

Khan Sheikhoun was the site of an Assad regime attack with sarin nerve agent which killed around 90 people and wounded hundreds in April 2017.

The area was overrun by the regime, enabled by Iran and Russia, in August 2019.

UPDATE 1525 GMT:

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Damascus to meet high-ranking officials of the Assad regime.

Before departing Tehran, Araghchi declared that he was bringing the message that Iran will “firmly support the Syrian government and army”.

UPDATE 1518 GMT:

Turkish-backed rebels have advanced to the entrance of Tel Rifaat, a town 40 km (25 miles) north of Aleppo city which is controlled by the mainly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

Turkey considers the SDF to be part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, which has fought with Ankara’s security forces for almost 40 years.

The rebels also took over the nearby Menagh Airbase, the fourth airbase or airport that they have captured since Wednesday.

UPDATE 1255 GMT:

The head of the Assad regime’s Military Security Branch in Hama city, Brig. Gen. Adi Ghosa, has been killed by a drone strike in Suran in northern Hama Province.

UPDATE 1242 GMT:

Assad regime forces are now bombing the city from which they fled in the past 48 hours.

Aleppo resident Maribelle Haddad reports strikes on sites opposite Aleppo University hospital:

The joint aircraft is committing real massacres among us….Why are you bombing us? We’re civilians and you’re bombing civilians and massacring civilians.

The White Helmets civil defense have appealed to the international community:

UPDATE 1056 GMT:

Video from the White Helmets civil defense of the Assad regime’s deadly retaliation in Idlib Province this morning:

UPDATE 1001 GMT:

Local fighters have attacked regime checkpoints in Daraa Province in southern Syria.

After several regime troops were killed, some checkpoints in the Inkhil and Ibtaa areas have been evacuated.

UPDATE 0950 GMT:

Assad regime forces have established a defense line north of Hama city, reaching the area of Taybet Imam and bringing in reinforcements.

The regime is also carrying out airstrikes near Morek.

On Saturday, regime attacks killed seven civilians and injured 18. A woman and three children were slain, and five women and eight children were wounded.

UPDATE 0911 GMT:

Amid the execution and torture of tens of thousands of detainees by the Assad regime, Kristyan Benedict of Amnesty International reports:

UPDATE, DEC 1:

Rebels have completed the liberation of Aleppo city, moving into Assad regime military positions.

The last three bases included the Military Academy and the Field Artillery College.

Rebels have also taken the Kuweires Military Airbase, 30 miles east of Aleppo city. It is the first time since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011 that anti-Assad groups have been inside the complex.

The Assad regime is responding by bombing civilian areas in Idlib Province, including a refugee camp near Idlib University.

UPDATE 1930 GMT:

The foreign ministers of Iran and Russia, the Assad regime’s essential backers, have consulted by phone about the rebel advance in Syria.

Iran State outlet Press TV gave no details, instead putting out propaganda lines. Quoting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, it said the advance was “the resurgence of Takfiri terrorism” as “part of an American-Israeli project that aims to spread insecurity in the West Asia region”.

The outlet said Russia’s Sergey “briefed his Iranian counterpart on his assessment of the latest developments in Syria”, calling for “more coordinated steps to combat terrorism”.

Press TV also features the afternoon proclamation of the Assad regime’s military.

The large numbers of terrorists and the multiplicity of battlefronts prompted our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defense lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack.

The military insisted the rebels had not been able to establish fixed positions in Aleppo city because of the army’s continued bombardment of their positions: “[We will] expel them and restore the control of the state …over the entire city and its countryside.”

UPDATE 1913 GMT:

One of the towns liberated by rebels is Kafr Nabl in Idlib Province, which became internationally-renowned during the Syrian uprising because of its witty and challenging banners for rights and justice.

Journalist and activist Raed Fares, one of the leaders of the movement, was assassinated in November 2018 by unknown assailants.

UPDATE 1908 GMT:

Another snapshot from liberated Aleppo:

UPDATE 1859 GMT:

Claims are circulating that Bashar al-Assad made an unannounced visit to Moscow and is still in the Russian capital.

Other claims this evening are of gunfire in Damascus and of regime in-fighting, including among military units.

One prominent regime propagandist has already fled. Businessman Fares Shehabi, who failed to become Prime Minister despite his devotion to Assad, announced that he has left Aleppo with his family — only two days after he said “terrorist infiltrators” would be quickly defeated.

UPDATE 1853 GMT:

Rebels are moving south through Hama Province. There is claimed video that they have entered Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city with almost a million people.

In 1982 the regime of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father, killed around 30,000 people in Hama as it tried to crush Sunni Muslim groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

UPDATE 1426 GMT:

Rebels have reportedly reclaimed the town of Ma’arat al-Num’an in Idlib Province.

Anti-Assad groups held the town from 2012 until early 2020, when the regime and its allies overran the area with months of aerial and ground attacks.

UPDATE 1421 GMT:

The Assad regime’s military acknowledges, in a statement on State media, that rebels are in Aleppo city.

The military command declares that the army will regroup as reinforcements arrive.

UPDATE 1418 GMT:

The mainly-Kurdish Syrian National Army is moving into areas east of Aleppo city. One report claims they are in Aleppo International Airport.

The advance sets up possible clashes with anti-Assad groups backed by Turkey, as Ankara — battling the Kurdish insurgency PKK for almost 40 years — considers the Syrian Kurds to be part of the movement.

UPDATE 0946 GMT:

The Assad regime’s military insists that it is defeating the rebel advance in Aleppo city and throughout the province.

“Our armed forces were able to inflict heavy losses on the attacking organizations and inflict hundreds of deaths and injuries among the terrorists’ ranks,” the General Command said in a statement on Friday.

It proclaimed that troops had “destroyed dozens of armored vehicles and [other] vehicles and were able to shoot down and destroy 17 drones.”

UPDATE 0932 GMT:

A fighter with the flag of Free Syria at the Aleppo Citadel:

Eight years after Aleppo was starved by siege, pounded by regime, Russian & Iranian forces & it's population forcibly displaced, the Free Syria flag flies over the citadel …

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— Leila (@leilashami.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 8:34 AM

A rebel tears down pictures of Iranian leaders in an Assad regime security facility:

An Iranian flag and pictures of Iran's mullahs being ripped off the walls of Assad's security branches in Aleppo.

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— Rami Jarrah (@ramijarrah.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 8:16 AM

A fighter is reunited with his family in Aleppo Province:

A Syrian opposition fighter meets his family after liberating his town from Assad, Russian and Iranian forces in the countryside of Aleppo, Syria.

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— Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول (@faredalmahlool.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 12:10 PM

UPDATE 0150 GMT:

Snapshots from the rebel takeover of parts of Aleppo:

This is a soldier in Assad's army who was sleeping all day and didn't know anything.. Then he went Sdown to the street with his weapon to buy cigarettes and found the Free Syrian Army in front of him.

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— Qusay Noor (@qusaynoor.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 11:22 PM

Footage of rebels releasing detainees:

Women and men detainees in the Tarek Bin Ziad the formerly Assad-held prison in Aleppo are being released by rebels. #Syria

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— Elia Ayoub إيليا أيوب (@ayoub.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 9:18 PM

Celebrations in al-Basel Square in western Aleppo city as a poster of Bashar al-Assad looks down on the rebels:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In a rapid three-day advance, rebels have reclaimed part of Syria’s largest city Aleppo from the Assad regime and its essential supporters Russia, Iran, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Expelled from eastern Aleppo in December 2016 after months of intense bombing, ground assaults, and siege, anti-Assad forces surged through western Aleppo Province and into the city.

Videos and photographs documented fighters in historic sites like Aleppo’s 12th-century Citadel. The Governor’s Palace, the Municipal Building, police headquarters, and buildings of state intelligence services have also been occupied.

Footage earlier in the day showed rebels infiltrating the city and seizing strategic positions.

The entry into the city rapidly followed the overrunning of regime bases as troops fled, leaving behind armor, munitions, and weapons. Rebels have also taken dozens of towns and villages in the Aleppo countryside.

David Carden, the UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria crisis, said 27 civilians, including eight children, were killed amid the fighting.

The UN said the regime carried out at least 125 airstrikes and shelling of areas across Idlib and western Aleppo Province. At least 12 civilians were killed and 46 wounded, with 14,000 displaced.

Two regime military officials insisted that, in the next 72 hours, new Russian military hardware will begin arriving at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase near the city of Latakia on the Mediterranean.

Turkey, the backer of anti-Assad groups in northwest Syria, called for calm around Idlib with an end to the airstrikes: “It is of utmost importance for Turkey that yet another and greater instability is avoided and civilians are not harmed.”