DAMASCUS, Syria: Syrian and Russian air forces were striking militant-held positions in Aleppo’s eastern countryside, the Syrian Prime Minister’s office said on Monday, as President Bashar al-Assad blamed the United States and the West for the latest escalation.
On November 27, insurgent armed groups carried out a large-scale attack in northern Syria and took over Aleppo city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
But until this weekend, the insurgents were never able to totally take over the city.
Russia said it continues to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is analysing the situation on the ground after armed groups seized territory in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday Russia would form its position based on unfolding events.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad branded the insurgent attack a bid to redraw the map of the region in line with US interests.
Assad said this during a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, his office said in a statement.
“The terrorist escalation reflects the far-reaching goals of dividing the region and fragmenting the countries in it and redraw the map in line with the objectives of the United States and the West,” Assad said in a statement from his office.
The Syrian army with Russian air support has destroyed five command centres and seven warehouses of insurgents in Aleppo and Idlib provinces over the past 24 hours, the Syrian Defence Ministry stated as quoted by TASS news agency.
According to the Syrian Armed Forces Command, the militants tried to attack villages and towns defended by the Syrian army and military facilities and continued to assault the positions of government forces.
On November 30, the Syrian Armed Forces’ Command stated that the army was targeting the positions of militants who had managed to penetrate many neighbourhoods of Aleppo city and was awaiting reinforcements, TASS reported.
According to the Defense Ministry’s statement, the Syrian army was forced to regroup its forces to protect the lives of civilians and soldiers and prepare for a counterattack.
Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, was in Syria on Sunday to deliver a message of support, state media said.
On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said, “Our military advisers were present in Syria, and they are still present. The presence of advisers from the Islamic Republic of Iran in Syria is not a new thing,” he said.
Syria’s defence ministry said the force had reinforced its defensive lines in the region with troops, rocket launchers and heavy military hardware.
In a statement, it said joint Syrian-Russian warplanes have launched precise strikes on armed groups’ positions, killing and wounding dozens. It claimed to recapture several towns that had been overrun in recent days by armed groups.
Armed groups began their offensive on Wednesday, just as a ceasefire took effect in Lebanon after more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The violence in Syria has killed more than 457 people, according to the Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
The United States and its allies France, Germany and Britain called Sunday for “de-escalation” in Syria, and for the protection of civilians and infrastructure.
The United States maintains hundreds of troops in northeast Syria as part of an anti-militant coalition.
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On Saturday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held phone calls with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts and expressed concerns over the “dangerous” escalation of hostilities in Syria, Moscow said.
Lavrov and Turkish top diplomat Hakan Fidan “expressed serious concern” and affirmed the need to “coordinate joint action to stabilise the situation”, the Russian foreign ministry said in its readout of the call.
In a call with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, both sides expressed “strong support” for Syria’s sovereignty and called for “joint efforts aimed at stabilising the situation”, the ministry said.
According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry about the call, both sides “expressed extreme concern about the dangerous escalation of the situation in Syria due to the armed groups’ offensive in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces”.
Iranian foreign minister warned that a resurgence of militant activities in Syria is part of a broader scheme by the Israeli regime and the United States to destabilize the West Asian region, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
According to Iran’s state media, Araghchi and Lavrov discussed key regional and international issues, with a particular focus on the evolving situation in Syria, where militants have mounted a surprise offensive in Aleppo and Idlib in recent days.
