BEIRUT: Using Russian airstrikes on areas of Syria’s second city for the first time since 2016, a war monitor said Saturday that militants now controlled most of Aleppo city. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, headquartered in Britain, Russian “warplanes launched raids on areas of Aleppo city for the first time since 2016.” Overnight, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and its allies “took control of most of the city and government centers and prisons.”
According to three military sources, Syrian authorities shut down Aleppo’s airport and all of the city’s roadways on Saturday after anti-President Bashar Assad terrorists claimed to have advanced into the center of Aleppo.
Nearly ten years after being driven out by Assad and his supporters, the opposition forces, commanded by the Islamist militant organization Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, made a surprising advance through areas controlled by the government this week and arrived in Aleppo.
According to two military sources, Russia, one of Assad’s main supporters, has promised Damascus further military assistance to stop the extremists, and new equipment will begin to arrive within the next 72 hours. According to three army sources, the Syrian army has been instructed to adhere to “safe withdrawal” directives from the main parts of the city that the terrorists have infiltrated.
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