Half of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest urban center, has been seized by jihadists and their allies, two days after they launched an offensive against government troops.

The jihadists entered Aleppo in an offensive that has now lasted four days and ended years of relative calm in northwest Syria. Yesterday, the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—dominated by al-Qaeda’s former Syrian arm—and its allied groups, some from Turkey, arrived at the city’s gates after two suicide car bomb attacks. They then occupied several districts.

At least 277 people have been killed in the fighting, according to an estimate given earlier by a non-governmental organization. These are the bloodiest clashes since 2020 in the Syrian sector where Aleppo province, largely controlled by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, borders Idlib, the last major jihadist and rebel stronghold.

Also yesterday, jihadists and rebels seized the strategic city of Saraqeb, south of Aleppo, where two highways connecting Damascus with Aleppo and with Latakia, respectively, intersect, according to information from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Early this morning, the Reuters news agency reported that the Syrian armed forces had closed key roads to and from Aleppo as its units were ordered to proceed with a “safe withdrawal” from districts quickly overrun by jihadists and rebels, citing three sources in the army.

The move appears designed to seal off the city as soldiers manning checkpoints around Aleppo have been ordered to allow only members of the armed forces through.

The Russian military has announced that its air force has struck “extremist” positions in Syria in support of government forces, according to Russian news agencies. The Syrian air force also carried out raids in Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Moscow has promised Damascus additional military aid to repel the attack, according to Reuters sources in the Syrian armed forces. Additional Russian military equipment  is expected at Khmeimim airbase, near the coastal city of Lattakia, within the next 72 hours, they said.

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