Syrian opposition carried out the biggest attack in nearly 5 years: At least 27 civilians were killed

27 civilians, including eight children, were killed in fighting in northwestern Syria, a United Nations official said on Friday, in some of the worst violence between Syrian government forces and rebels in the past three days.

Rebels led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Wednesday launched an attack on a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo, controlled by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian army said it continued to face the offensive and inflicted heavy casualties on rebels in Aleppo and the Idlib countryside.

Rebels entered the city of Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, on Friday after detonating two car bombs, war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Türkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency also reported that opposition rebels entered Aleppo city center on Friday. It was stated that the rebels “broke the defense lines of the regime forces along the axis of Hamdaniyye, New Aleppo and Zahra on the outskirts of the city.” The report stated that the rebels currently control approximately 70 places in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

It is not clear where Assad is

David Carden, the UN’s deputy regional Humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said: “We are deeply concerned about the situation unfolding in north-west Syria.”

“Continuous attacks over the last three days have claimed the lives of at least 27 civilians, including children as young as eight,” he told Reuters.

“Civilians and civilian infrastructure are not targets and must be protected under international humanitarian law.”

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that four civilians, including two students, were killed in the rebel bombardment of university student dormitories in Aleppo on Friday.

It was not clear whether they were among the 27 dead reported by the UN official.

The attack was the biggest since March 2020 by Russia and Turkey, which back some rebels in the northwest. An agreement was reached to reduce conflict.

Syrian military and rebel sources said Russian and Syrian warplanes bombed the area near the Turkish border on Thursday in an attempt to push back a rebel offensive that had seized the area for the first time in years.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia, which has forces supporting Assad in Syria, sees the rebel attack as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty and wants authorities to act quickly to regain control.

“As for the situation around Aleppo, this is an attack on Syria’s sovereignty and we are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the region and restoring the constitutional order as soon as possible,” Peskov said.

Asked about unconfirmed Russian Telegram reports that Assad had flown to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Peskov said he had “nothing to say” on the matter.

Preventing further instability in the region is the government’s priority, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Öncü Keceli said in a statement, adding that Ankara warned that recent attacks on Idlib, a rebel-held region in the northwest, undermine the spirit and implementation of this decision. -escalation agreements.