Syria Rebels Take Aleppo Airport and Attack Hama, Officials and a Monitor Say

Rebel forces advanced in Syria on Sunday amid fierce fighting, capturing the airport of the major city of Aleppo and attacking the outskirts of the western city of Hama, according to local officials and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were trying to repel them, they said.

The rebels had captured much of Aleppo a day earlier in a surprise offensive. They now control a broad swath of land across the provinces of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, in the west and northwest of Syria, according to information from local officials and the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.

The New York Times also observed rebels in control of parts of Hama Province as well as neighborhoods in the east of the city of Aleppo and some of the countryside beyond it that were only days earlier held by government forces.

Government troops were battling to defend the city of Hama from being overrun, the Observatory said. Syrian government warplanes were also bombing territory that was now rebel-held, causing civilian casualties, the monitor said.

It said that government forces were receiving support from Russian fighter jets, which were striking targets across the countryside near Hama and Idlib province.

Russia, which is allied with Mr. Assad, has repeatedly come to his aid since early in the civil war that broke out in 2011, after protests over Mr. Assad’s autocratic rule drew a swift and bloody military crackdown.

A government statement said Mr. Assad had spoken to the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Iraq on Saturday, vowing that Syria would “defeat the terrorists, regardless of the intensity of their attacks.” Syrian officials routinely refer to rebels as terrorists.

The Syrian military also said in a statement on Saturday that its operation to push back the rebels was “successfully” progressing and that it would soon initiate a counterattack. It tried to discredit reports about rebel advances, saying that the armed groups were spreading “false news” to “undermine the morale of our people and our brave army.”

Across the territory that had flipped back to the rebels, people could be seen tearing up Syrian government flags and pictures of Mr. Assad, including fighters and former Aleppo residents who were returning to their homes for the first time in years. Photos taken in Aleppo also showed the toppling of a statue that had apparently depicted Bassel al-Assad, the president’s elder brother.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, and Rania Khaled from Cairo.