The rapid collapse of Syrian government forces inside and around the country's second-largest city, Aleppo, has caught many observers by surprise and is causing a domino effect on many parts of the country.
Rebel fighters, who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad and include those from the terrorist Jabhat al Nusra group, fired weapons Saturday inside Syria's northern “economic capital” of Aleppo after the withdrawal of government forces from the city.
Amateur video showed rebel fighters in control of Aleppo's central Saadallah Jabari Square, in addition to Aleppo University and the city's provincial government headquarters.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that Syrian government forces also withdrew from Aleppo's civilian and military airports. Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia showed amateur video of rebels apparently in control of the military airport.
Britain-based Syrian analyst Rami Abdulrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Arab media that Iranian forces and their proxy militia allies have withdrawn from many positions in and around Aleppo.
Abdulrahman said that Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces withdrew from the region after a drone attacked them and their allies, including Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militia fighters, who pulled out alongside them.
Arab media reported that the entire region between Aleppo and the rebel-controlled province of Idlib had fallen and that large towns south of Aleppo on the main Aleppo-Damascus highway, including Saraqib and Maarat al-Numan, also were captured.
It was not clear if other large Syrian cities would fall, but Joshua Landis, who heads the Middle East studies program at the University of Oklahoma, told VOA that all eyes are now on Hama, which is Syria's fourth-largest city.
Landis said he believes it is possible the capital of Damascus may fall, because government supporters are dispirited and have lost the will to fight. Despite Turkish government denials, Landis says the entire operation has "Turkish fingerprints written all over it," since "all the arms and food and money that enter Idlib come from Turkey."
"I'm sure Turkey wanted to give Assad a slap in the face and bring him to the [negotiating] table,” Landis said, “but it's clearly set off dominoes that I don't think anyone expected [to fall]."
Landis said there are several reasons for Assad's weakness, including Israel's "pulling the stuffing out of [his ally] Hezbollah" and the "relentless Israeli pounding of Syrian government positions" and those of their allies inside the country since the outset of the Gaza conflict on October 7, 2023.
Syrian analysts also told Arab media that the Iran-Syria axis "has been weakened since the road from Tehran to Beirut is no longer open and arms are no longer able to reach Iran's proxy militia allies. In addition, Syrian ally Russia "has its hands tied at the moment because of its conflict with Ukraine."
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan denied that his government had any responsibility in the Syrian rebel onslaught on Aleppo. "Turkey is playing an increasing role in trying to achieve peace in the region."
Russian forces reportedly pulled out of several strategic positions in the region overnight, but Russian and Syrian warplanes bombed rebel forces in Aleppo and other parts of the region, causing numerous rebel casualties, according to the Syrian military.
