Rebels launched surprise attack on Friday almost a decade after government forces drove them from city
Russian and Syrian warplanes have targeted insurgents in an Aleppo suburb, according to Syrian military sources, after rebel fighters entered the heart of the city in a surprise attack on Friday.
The attack by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham marks the most significant challenge in years to President Bashar al-Assad, reigniting tensions in the Syrian civil war that have largely been frozen since 2020.
The Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue service operating in opposition-held parts of Syria, said in a post on X that Syrian government and Russian aircraft carried out airstrikes on residential neighbourhoods, a petrol station and a school in rebel-held Idlib, killing four civilians and wounding six others.
Russia, which deployed its air force to Syria in 2015 to support Assad in the war, has promised Damascus extra military aid to thwart the rebels, which will start arriving in the next 72 hours, according to sources.
