Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted insurgents in an Aleppo suburb on Saturday, two Syrian military sources said, after the rebel fighters penetrated the heart of the city in Syria’s northwest in a surprise attack the previous day.
The attack by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham marks the most significant challenge in years to President Bashar al-Assad, jolting the front lines of the Syrian civil war that have largely been frozen since 2020.
The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue service operating in opposition-held parts of Syria, said on social media that Syrian government and Russian aircraft carried out air strikes on residential neighbourhoods, a gas 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, the two military sources said, adding this would start arriving in the next 72 hours.
The insurgent force began its surprise offensive earlier this week, sweeping through government-held towns and reaching Aleppo nearly a decade after government forces backed by Russia and Iran drove rebels from the city.
Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport as well as all roads leading into the city on Saturday, the two military sources and a third army source said.