Smoke rises from an attack by anti-Assad forces on regime positions in western Aleppo Province, Syria, November 27, 2024

UPDATE 1433 GMT:

Consulting with the Assad regime, Iran’s leadership has said the rebel advance in northwest Syria is “an American-Zionist design”.

Calling Assad regime counterpart Bassam al-Sabbagh, Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi maintained that the offensive was linked to Israel’s “defeats against resistance” in Lebanon and Palestine.

UPDATE 1300 GMT:

Russia, which has propped up the Assad regime since Syria’s uprising began in March 2011, says it hoped its ally can quickly “restore order” in Aleppo Province in northwest Syria.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow sees the attack as “an infringement on the sovereignty of Syria”: “We are for the government of Syria to quickly restore order in this district.”

UPDATE, NOV 29:

Anti-Assad forces are inside Syria’s largest city Aleppo for the first time since December 2016.

Advancing 17 km (10.6 miles) in just over two days, the rebels reportedly captured the Assad regime’s military research complex near the city.

The Syrian opposition, having captured part of Aleppo in 2012, was forced out of the eastern part of the city in 2016 after months of bombing, ground assaults, and siege by the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran.

The rebels also announced the capture of Hadher, a former base of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in southern Aleppo Province.

Footage of rebels in the Khan Tuman area, capturing a large amount of regime armor:

UPDATE 1842 GMT:

The White Helmets civil defense says at least 11 people, including three children and two women, have been killed in two different villages in western Aleppo Province by pro-Assad airstrikes.

The International Rescue Committee said at least 7,000 families have been newly displaced. Some schools and health facilities, including IRC’s field operations. have been forced to suspend services.

UPDATE 1826 GMT:

Videos of anti-Assad rebels of captured regime positions and weapons in western Aleppo Province….

Armor still in a storage area near the base of the 46th Regiment:

The takeover of Khan al-Assal, in the western outskirts of Aleppo city, with T-55 tank left behind by pro-Assad forces:

Rebels in towns southwest of Aleppo city, moving along the M-5 highway:

A rebel tears down a poster of Bashar al-Assad:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In their most significant operations in more than 4 1/2 years, anti-Assad forces have advanced in northwest Syria.

Both rebel and Assad regime sources confirmed the operations in northwestern Aleppo Province, by a coalition of insurgents led by the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. At least 10 areas were taken by the anti-Assad fighters.

Capturing the main regime base in western Aleppo Province, rebels advanced to almost 10 km (6.2 miles) from the outskirts of Syria’s largest city Aleppo.

The insurgents are close to the towns of Nubl and Zahra, where the Lebanese group Hezbollah has forces backing the regime. The fighters also attacked al-Nayrab airport east of Aleppo, where pro-Iranian militias have outposts.

Among those killed were Brig. Gen. Kioumars Pourhashemi of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and two Assad regime colonels.

For the first time in Syria’s uprising, which began in March 2011, rebels captured a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle.

The rebels said they were responding to an escalation in airstrikes on civilian areas in recent weeks against by Russian and regime forces, and to a buildup of regime troops near frontlines.

A regime official said the army struck rebel-held cities such as Idlib, Ariha, and Sarmada in southern Idlib province, adjacent to Aleppo.

The anti-Assad advance is the most substantial since March 2020, when Russian and Turkey brokered a ceasefire ending an 11-month offensive by Russian, Iranian, and regime forces that seized part of northwest Syria.

Witnesses said hundreds of families in the last refuge for opponents of Assad fled to safer areas along the Turkish border.

A “senior Turkish security source” said Ankara attempted to prevent the offensive to avoid a further escalation in regional tensions, amid Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

However, the official said, efforts through channels established by a 2019 de-escalation agreement with the Russians had not yielded results.

In response to these [regime] attacks, Syrian opposition groups launched a limited operation towards Aleppo, targeting the areas from which the attacks originated.

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