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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Syrian insurgent fighters mentioned they had been urgent southward after taking up a lot of the nation’s second metropolis Aleppo, together with its worldwide airport, in a lightning assault that poses the largest problem in years to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The hundreds of rebels, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, entered Aleppo city, which has a inhabitants of 2mn, on Friday. Pictures circulating on opposition-linked social media this weekend confirmed them elevating their flag over the town’s citadel and posing in its airport.
The rebels, who launched their assault on Wednesday, mentioned their fighters had superior in a number of instructions from their stronghold in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. HTS tried to press on to the most important regime-held metropolis of Hama, south of Aleppo, and claimed that they had seized at the very least 4 cities in Hama province. The Syrian military denied this.
In his first public feedback because the begin of the offensive, Assad mentioned his nation would proceed to “defend its stability and its territorial integrity within the face of terrorists and their supporters”, in remarks carried by state information company Sana.
The feedback got here throughout a name with Emirati chief Mohammed bin Zayed, an Assad ally, who “emphasised the UAE’s solidarity with Syria and its help in combating terrorism”.
It was not clear whether or not Assad had returned to Syria following a go to to Moscow earlier this week.
The Syrian military denied that the rebels had secured Aleppo however later added that it was redeploying its forces because it ready to launch a counterattack supported by Russian air strikes and strengthen its defensive strains after days of fierce combating. Dozens of Syrian military troopers had been killed by insurgent forces, the defence ministry mentioned.
Assad faces rising home and exterior pressures in a rustic shattered by a civil struggle that erupted after a 2011 standard rebellion. He was capable of quash the unique insurrection with army backing from Russia, Iran and Iranian-backed teams, together with Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant motion.
Regardless of regaining management over two-thirds of the nation, years of battle and a deep financial disaster have left it in ruins.
The combating had largely subsided in recent times, with the surviving insurgent teams pushed into north and northwestern areas near the Turkish border.
However over the previous yr, Israel has ramped up air strikes on Iran-affiliated targets in Syria because it launched an offensive towards Hizbollah in Lebanon, severely weakening teams that had performed an important function in conserving Assad in energy.
HTS’s capacity to maneuver deeper into Syria is a significant embarrassment for Assad, underscoring the regime’s weak point. The offensive appeared to have been deliberate for years, and comes at a time when Assad’s allies are preoccupied with their very own conflicts in each Ukraine and the Center East.
HTS chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani mentioned his fighters wouldn’t relaxation “till we attain the center of Damascus”, in outdated video footage which was republished by social media networks linked to the group this weekend.
Russian warplanes bombed insurgent positions in a bid to stem their advance. Russia’s defence ministry was quoted by state information businesses as saying the nation’s forces had killed “at the very least 300 militants by missile strikes . . . on command posts, warehouses and artillery positions”.
Opposition-linked media famous a number of Russian air strikes in Idlib on Saturday night and Sunday.
Russian overseas minister Sergei Lavrov has mentioned the state of affairs in Syria with Hakan Fidan, his Turkish counterpart. Lavrov additionally spoke to Iran’s overseas minister Abbas Araghchi, who is anticipated to go to Damascus on Sunday and Ankara on Monday, as the principle powers concerned in Syria started a flurry of diplomacy.
