The Syrian regime has rushed in reinforcements to stop insurgents advancing further into the Hama countryside, after they seized Aleppo in a major threat to dictatorial president Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
And in a second day of intensive bombing, Russian and Syrian warplanes struck the rebel-held city of Idlib. Residents said one of the raids hit a crowded residential area, killing at least four people and wounding dozens.
The insurgents, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took over most of Aleppo on Saturday following a shock offensive, and claimed to have entered the city of Hama, just 30 miles from the strategically key city of Homs.
Rebel commander Colonel Hassan Abdulghani said separately the insurgents also took control of Sheikh Najjar, also known as the Aleppo Industrial City, Aleppo’s military academy and the field artillery college to the city’s south-west.
Syria’s army in turn claimed it had recaptured several towns that had been overrun in recent days by the rebels, a coalition of Turkey-backed mainstream secular armed groups along with the Islamist group HTS, which has emerged as the Syrian opposition’s most formidable military force.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi was due to travel to the Syrian capital Damascus later on Sunday, telling reporters that Tehran would back the Syrian regime and army, at a time when its allies in Hezbollah have been severely weakened by Israel.
Mr Assad’s other major ally, Russia – whose brutal air campaign helped him retake Aleppo after it was last seized in 2016 – is also preoccupied with its war in Ukraine. However, reports claimed on Saturday that Moscow had again launched some air strikes, with monitors saying dozens of civilians had been killed.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory on Human Rights said on Sunday that regime forces had sent in heavy reinforcements and set a strict defence line in Taybat Al-Imam city and towns in the northern countryside of Hama.
Syrian state television claimed government forces have killed nearly 1,000 insurgents over the past three days, without providing evidence or details, in a toll significantly higher than that given by war monitors.
Government air strikes overnight on Idlib city, the rebel-held bastion near Hama province, killed four civilians and injured 54 others, according to the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, that operates in opposition-held areas.
According to Syrian state news agency Sana and a war monitor, the army pushed back insurgents in the northern countryside of Hama province overnight.
At least 372 people have been killed since the fighting began earlier this week, SOHR said on Sunday, including 114 members of the regime’s forces and their proxy militias. That toll also includes 48 civilians, most of whom have been killed in air strikes, the war monitors said.
In his first public comments since the start of the offensive, released by the state news agency on Saturday evening, Mr Assad insisted his regime would continue to “defend its stability and territorial integrity against terrorists and their supporters”.
He insisted that Syria is able to defeat them no matter how much their attacks intensify.
Yet the swift and surprise offensive is a huge embarrassment for Mr Assad and raises questions about his armed forces’ preparedness.
The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Mr Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.
After appearing to be losing control of the country to the rebels, the Aleppo battle secured Mr the president’s hold on strategic areas of Syria, with opposition factions and their foreign backers controlling areas on the periphery.
Speaking from Aleppo on Friday, Abd Alghani Al-Aryan, a journalist from Idlib who joined the forces as they swept into Aleppo, the first time he had entered the city in 13 years, said “the regime is collapsing dramatically”.
“It feels like a dream, I can’t even describe it,” he told The Independent from inside the city. “The regime’s return is out of the question, especially if they accept the current reality in the region.”
He added: “Especially after losing its most critical element that was protecting it: Russian airpower, followed by the Iranian and Lebanese militias, particularly Hezbollah.”
Additional reporting by agencies