According to the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), rebel forces in Syria have taken control of several neighborhoods in the country’s second largest city, Aleppo.
The move is the biggest offensive against the Syrian government in years and marks the first time rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have entered Aleppo since they were forced out by the army in 2016.
A video posted on a channel affiliated with the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) shows rebel fighters in vehicles inside the city.
BBC Verify geolocates the footage to a western suburb of the city.
Meanwhile, government forces say they have recaptured positions in several towns in Aleppo and Idlib provinces following an operation launched by HTS and allied factions on Wednesday.
More than half a million people have died in the civil war that began in 2011 after the government cracked down on pro-democracy protests.
An array of armed groups opposed to the Assad regime – including jihadists – took advantage of the turmoil to seize vast territory.
The Syrian government – with the help of Russia and other allies – later recaptured much of the territory it lost.
Idlib, the last remaining opposition stronghold, is mostly controlled by HTS, but Turkish-backed rebel factions and Turkish forces are also based there.
A statement posted on a rebel-linked channel on Friday said: “Our forces have begun entering Aleppo city.”
Videos confirmed by the BBC show gunmen running down a street about seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Aleppo’s medieval citadel in the center of the city.
Another clip, confirmed by the BBC, shows a large group of people carrying supplies from an area near Aleppo University. The video was recorded 3 kilometers from a point where HTS-affiliated media claim rebel forces have entered the city.
The government says that reinforcements have now arrived in Aleppo and are driving out the rebels.
SOHR, which uses a network of ground sources in Syria, reported that Syrian and Russian aircraft carried out 23 airstrikes on the Aleppo area on Friday.
SOHR said 255 people were killed in the fighting, the deadliest in years between rebels and pro-government forces in Syria.
Fighting in Idlib had largely ceased since 2020, when Turkey and Russia, Syria’s main allies, brokered a ceasefire to stop the government’s push to retake the province.
But on Wednesday HTS and its allies said they had launched their offensive to “prevent aggression”, accusing the government and its allied militias of fueling tensions in the region.
It comes at a time when the Syrian government and its allies are engaged in other conflicts.
In neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli military campaign has decimated the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, whose fighters helped turn the tide of Syria’s civil war.
Israel has also stepped up its airstrikes inside Syria against targets linked to Iran and Iran-backed groups.